Railways plans Prepaid Coupon Suburban ticketing
Southern Railway is moving to introduce a coupon-based suburban ticketing system, in order to ease congestion at booking counters. Initially, pre-paid coupon tickets will be made available in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam.
The system will enable commuters to purchase coupons in advance and exchange them for tickets through Coupon Validating Machines (CVMs). The coupons would be available in various denominations and issued at no extra charge, railway sources said. When implemented first in the Central and Western Railways, the system reduced considerably the length of queues, particularly in Mumbai.
The CVMs stamp the date and time without the intervention of an operator. "The methodology is simple and almost similar to the platform ticket vending machine. Instead of coins, passengers will drop coupons. We will start implementing it where the suburban traffic is more. "This is one of the steps to realise the vision of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad to eliminate queues at booking counters," Madurai Additional Divisional Railway Manager M. Suyambulingam said.
Explaining other measures to minimise rush at counters, he said Southern Railway had undertaken a study to compute the average queue level during peak and non-peak hours at major stations. While e-ticketing was extended to petrol pumps, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Automatic Ticket Vending Machines and Smart Card Ticketing System were gaining popularity, he added.
