Ticket vending machines to get smarter

The reason is that there is no automatic system to indicate commuters or the chief booking supervisor that there is no more ticket roll in the machine. Besides,the commuter faces difficulties in getting an immediate refund.

Central Railway will soon introduce a system that will put an end to the problem. A modified machine is being installed to indicate when the ticket roll is exhausted. In the existing system,the status of ticket roll in a particular ATVM can be known to the chief ticket supervisor,who can also know if the machine is deducting money but not printing tickets. But this can be done only when the status of a particular machine is accessed through the SMC,the software for monitoring the ATVMs.

Satya Prakash,Chief Commercial Manager,CR said: “It is true that at present the SMC of ATVMs does not reveal that ticket roll is about to be depleted. The new ATVMs (the CR is going to introduce 225 machines in three months) will be programmed to indicate the status of the roll.”

Till the problem is fixed,passengers would be at the receiving end as there is no system to get an immediate refund in case of such deductions.

“When passengers go to the Chief Ticket Supervisor,they say they are not authorised to refund money manually. Passengers do not know how and where they can get a refund,” said Ravi Prasad,a passenger. Prasad did not get two return tickets from Borivali to Churchgate though the ATVM deducted Rs 36 from his smart card.

“In such situations,the Chief Booking Supervisor may check and reload the smart card and the amount would be debited. Commuters should not remove their smart card from the machine until the ticket is issued or the amount is debited to the card,” said an official at the commercial department of Western Railway.

However,most chief booking supervisors disagree. Speaking to Newsline a CBS said: “There is no system to reload the smart card on the software. Sometimes passengers are so aggressive that we have to pay them manually. The amount is not refunded to us by the Railways.”

More stations to get ATVMs
At present there are 175 ATVMs at 35 stations of the main and harbour lines of CR,which are being relocated at 51 stations. ATVMs were installed at CR in November,2007. Every day,20,000 passengers book tickets through ATVMs. So far,2.37 lakh smart cards have been sold.

113 ATVMs are installed at 28 stations in Western Railway. ATVMs were introduced in WR in October,2007. At present there are 2.97 lakh smart card users in WR. On an average,45,000 passengers book tickets every day using smart cards. His is 5 per cent of total sale of single journey tickets.