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Chennai
The ATVMs are yet to gain popularity as people prefer to purchase train tickets at the counters. A scene at Chennai Beach station recently. CHENNAI: Automation is not a solution to all problems, and certainly not to the problems of commuters queuing up at Chennai suburban railway stations. As with all best-laid plans of mice and men, automation has only managed to increase queue lengths. A number of stations along the Chennai suburban routes have been provided with a computerised reservation system to help passengers book tickets from any place to any other place up to three days in advance. This Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) that has replaced the old manual punching system, called the ‘Byculla’ system, also manages to bring accountability by connecting all stations to a central server in the Southern Railway headquarters. However, queue lengths have only increased at most suburban stations. One major reason cited is the increase in passenger traffic. Neenu Ittyerah, Chief Public Relations Officer, Southern Railway, says that passenger traffic has increased at the rate of more than 10 per cent this year. But commuters say that the UTS has only contributed to an increase in queue lengths as passengers have to wait for nearly twice the time they used to, before the system was introduced. Along with the transaction time at the counter, involving the actual buying of tickets, there is an added wait for the tickets to get printed by the dot matrix printers. “We have introduced Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) at most stations for regular passengers to reduce waiting time. There is also the option of going in for season tickets,” S. Anantharaman, Chief Commercial Manager (Passenger Marketing), Southern Railway, points out. In fact, only about 32 per cent of all train passengers in the Chennai suburban railway system buy season tickets, he says, compared to 80 per cent of passengers in Mumbai. The number using the ATVMs, introduced in March this year, is even lower. This contributes to long queues, but he is confident that the ATVMs will become more popular with time. “We have issued nearly 8,000 tickets in the first three months, and have generated revenue of nearly Rs. 33 lakh in this period from them. We are also providing a 5 per cent bonus on recharge of every card worth Rs. 100,” he says. Not many takersHowever, the smart cards, which expire in six months, are not finding many takers with the ATVMs lying neglected while counters overflow with passengers waiting to buy tickets. Some passengers complain that the ATVMs do not function all the time, while others say that they are not ready to shell out Rs.100 given that they are travelling only infrequently. Mr. Anantharaman says that he has written to the Railway Board to reduce the minimum amount on each card to Rs.50. He also says that the ATVMs are functional but small technical glitches once in a while are unavoidable. Manpower issues would be ironed out over time, but the fact is that people could only benefit by the automation in the long run.
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