In a bid to promote cashless transactions, Western Railway (WR) will soon be setting up two automatic ticket zones which will consist of Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) and QR codes for the UTS App. As part of the drive, two ticket offices — one each at Andheri and Borivali — will be shut down temporarily and the ticketing zone will be set up instead.
“We are conducting the drive on an experimental basis in order to promote ATVMs and discourage booking through windows. We will take stock after a month and decide on the future course of action. We chose Andheri and Borivali, as both stations have multiple booking offices,” Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager, Mumbai, WR, said.
Despite being in operation for several years, ATVMs account for only 19% of the ticketing revenue from the suburban stations on WR. ATVM users get a 3% incentive for using the card, which used to be 5% until April.
“Even ticket bookings on ATVMs has been driven through facilitators and it is hard to ascertain the percentage of commuters who actually use ATVMs,” a senior official said.
The move to shut two ticket offices is expected to push commuters towards purchasing the card or using the app.
Aarti Parihar, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Mumbai, WR said that a key hindrance faced by commuters is the purchase of the card itself. “As part of the drive, we will have staff present at the ticketing zone with pre-loaded smart cards. Commuters can buy them and if required they will also get assistance in navigating the ATVMs or the app,” she said. A smart card costs ₹100, which comes with a ₹50 balance.
The Mumbai Division has over the past few months conducted similar drives to popularise the UTS App, which has yielded results. The app in November accounted for 2.31% of journey tickets and 3.84% of season passes. The figure in April stood at 1.02% and 3.84% respectively. The percentage of journey tickets hovered around 19% through the year, while season passes were negligible.
