Vending machines for train tickets

Mumbai: The hassle of standing in long queues at suburban railway stations will soon be a thing of the past with the introduction of automatic ticket vending machines (ATVMs).

The Central Railway (CR) yesterday inaugurated the ATVMs at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and introduced a Smart Card to be used on the user friendly touch screen machines to purchase suburban train and platform tickets. After the Western Railway introduced the ATVMs last month, the CR, which runs the Mainline and Harbour Line services, has set up 15 ATVMs at CST, 10 at Thane and eight at Kalyan.

"Another 142 ATVMs will be installed in a phased manner on the suburban stations of CR," said A.K. Jhingron, general manager, Central & Western Railways.

The Smart Card, bought at any rail counter for Rs50 (Dh4.5), has to be first placed on the machine's sensor and the user chooses the zone and language - English, Hindi or Marathi. The destination, route and class are then selected, to be followed by choosing the single/return ticket and number of child/adult tickets.

Connected system

A ticket can also be cancelled before printing it.

The Smart Card can be refilled at select counters in multiples of Rs50 up to a maximum of Rs500.

"This is for the first time that the vending machines will be connected to a central computer system that will monitor the number of tickets sold, the availability of paper and so on and therefore there will be no situation of a passenger going to a machine and not being able to get a ticket," said Jhingron.

On the Western line, 125 ATVMs were introduced last month between Churchgate and Virar railway stations. These vending machines will help ease congestion at manned ticket counters and also in stations where there is minimal manpower.