The advent of the mobile age of ticketing was imperative.
In a city which is famed to never sleep and where time is synonymous to money, Mumbai's lifeline — its massive suburban railway network — going digital is the beginning of something that is of value for as long as smartphones rule our day.
On October 9, Central Railway's unreserved ticketing system went mobile with the mechanism in place to allow commuters to buy tickets, season passes and even platform tickets at its outstation termini through a mobile phone application. In July Western Railway, with a much smaller suburban system, had gone digital.
It now means a beginning has been made to end an era when sometimes people had to wait in a queue longer than the journey itself for which the ticket was being purchased. It marks the start of an era where railway's service motto of 'ticket in five minutes' becomes a reality.
The advent of the mobile age of ticketing was imperative. Long queues and the loss of time meant thousands of commuters — those who could well afford tickets — were travelling ticketless.
The numbers speak for themselves. Between April and September, the first six months of the financial year, both CR and WR had to bend their backs to get a grip on the menace of ticketless travelling. On CR during this period a total of 13.02 lakh cases were made, up from 10.66 lakh cases during the same time last year — a rise of 22 per cent.
The fines recovered were in the range of Rs66.99 crore, a 30 per cent rise from the Rs51 crore recovered in fines during the April-September period of 2014. On WR, the story was much the same with the first six months seeing 12 lakh cases and fines worth Rs50 crore being recovered. It marked an 11 per cent hike in terms of money collected during the same period last year.
In a couple of years, officials believe more tickets will be vended through this mobile application than from ticketing windows at stations. For the moment, however, for the dream of hassle-free anytime, anywhere train ticket utopia, it is only the beginning.
How to use the app?
1- Download and install UTS app on your smartphone
2- First-time users need to sign up
3- Select the city as Mumbai
4- Use normal/quick booking as per choice given in the app window
5- Purchase tickets using R-wallet
6- R-wallet can be recharged on www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in or at any suburban ticket window (recharge can be minimum Rs100 and maximum Rs5,000)
10 day data for mobile ticketing (Oct 9 to Oct19)
CR WR
1) Total single journey passengers 4,817 6,111
2) Season ticket passengers 14,400 11,100
3) Platform tickets sold 39 40
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