Despite Railways launching its own e-ticketing service seven years ago and rolling out several proactive steps, only 65% of all passenger reservation system (PRS) tickets are booked online.
A majority of the people who reach the PRS counter are in the 21-45 age group (63%). This is followed by those in the 46-60 years (22%) and above 60 years (11 %), a survey undertaken by the commercial wing of Southern Railway to look into ways to achieve at least 80-85% e-ticketing has revealed.
The report with suggestions to increase e-ticketing has been submitted to the Railway Board, a railway official told The Hindu .
The survey was carried out at the busiest PRS centres of Chennai Central, Chennai Beach, Egmore, Chennai Mambalam, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Coimbatore, and Salem between March 5 and 12.
The survey found that 35% of those reaching the PRS centre come out of habit.
Non-availability of Internet connection and lack of knowledge about net facility bring 26%. Also, 20% want to use only cash, 8% want to avail themselves of concessions, and 3% want to do bulk booking.
The remaining 7% reach the centres as they want to use waitlisted ticket for travel, have Internet connectivity issues, want to avoid belated refund process, and want assured choice of berth.
Railways have found that 31% wish to use waitlisted ticket for travel with some priority.
A waitlisted e-ticket is automatically cancelled and clerkage charges deducted. If a credit card is used, it will take days to get the refund.
The suggestions to enhance the use of e-ticketing include cashless PRS centres and popularising R-Wallet. Enabling bulk booking, permitting waitlisted e-ticket holders to travel, limiting damage due to payment gateway failures, and avoiding delay of refunds are the other suggestions.
