Bringing much respite to commuters, the automatic ticket vending machines (ATVMs) installed at different suburban stations of the Central and Western Railways, would soon be able to dispense general class tickets for non-suburban stations too.
With this facility, a commuter would be able to get tickets for Vapi, Nashik, Pune, Surat etc. from the ATVMs. Dadar, CST, Mumbai Central, Thane, Borivali, Vasai, Andheri, Churchgate, Borivali and Kalyan are the main stations, which have been earmarked to issue the tickets.
Earlier, the Central Railway was given this facility to issue tickets from its ATVMs from December 2012. However, despite it being a hit with the commuters, it was scrapped on February 8, 2013 due to technical issues. Now, the technical problems have been solved and according to a senior railway officer from the commercial department of WR, “Our ATVMs will start issuing general class tickets for non-suburban stations, which will be a great facility for them,” adding, “Whenever the ATVM card is recharged, five per cent of the amount is given to the holder for free, and this is one of the major factors behind the ATVM’s success.”
Following the positive response that this facility evoked in the CR, ATVMs were installed at various other stations like CST, Dadar, Thane and Kalyan. “We were planning to extend this facility of selling non-suburban tickets at all the railway stations,” added the official.
The WR and CR have already written a letter to the Railway board, seeking permission to sell non-suburban tickets from suburban stations through its ATVMs. Both the Railways are of the opinion that these ATVMs would gain popularity among the commuters and fetch good revenues. “With our ATVMs being enabled to issue non-suburban tickets, a lot of commuters can procure tickets without having to stand in long queues,” said Ity Pandey, senior divisional commercial manager, Mumbai Division, WR.
Atul Rane, chief PRO, CR, said, “Our machines have been upgraded with the necessary software and it will become functional once the programmes are loaded.”