Platform and Unreserved Ticket now through App and Vending Machine

Thanks to all circle members of Make Railways Better. One of your inputs in multiple whitepapers was easing of platform ticket booking as well as unreserved ticket booking.

We are pleased to share with you that now platform tickets can be booked via mobile app as well as Cash/Smart Card Operated Ticket Vending Machine. We will soon bring them to all major stations.

Thanks to your continued inputs. Please experience these and share your inputs on the workings so we can further improve them in due course.

Below is the procedure of using them and additional details.

Procedure for booking of Paperless Unreserved Journey tickets, Season tickets and Platform tickets.

Download the Mobile application from Google Play Store or Windows Store.

· Register by providing Mobile Number, Name, City, Train Type, Class, Ticket Type, Number of Passengers and Frequently travel routes.

· Payment has to be made using R-Wallet. Upon successful registration, R-Wallet will be opened with Zero Balance.

· Value can be topped up in R-Wallet by tendering cash across the nominated counter and also online on website “utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in”.

· Passenger can book single Journey ticket, Platform ticket as well as season tickets by choosing appropriate option in the App.

· The Smart Phone should be GPS enabled to book single journey ticket and Platform ticket.

Functioning Of CoTVM

Cash/Smart card operated ticket vending machine (CoTVM) is a self-operated kiosk, which can be used by passengers to buy unreserved tickets through currency/coins/smart cards and to recharge smart cards. These kiosks have easy graphical interface for ticket transaction so that the user can operate these machines themselves. The kiosk accepts currency/coin of all glued/taped/coloured notes and accepts currency notes of Gandhi series. CoTVMs will reduce queue lengths at existing ticket counters by providing an alternate unmanned ticketing solution and mode of payment.



CoTVMs have the following functions.

1. Issue of non-concessional second class journey tickets for non-suburban section and second/first class journey/return tickets for suburban section.

2. Issue of platform tickets.

3. Renewal of non-concessional season tickets.

4. Recharge of smart cards in denominations of Rs. 20/-, Rs. 50/-, Rs. 100/- and Rs. 500/-.



CoTVM consists of:

1. Thin Client

2. Thermal Printer

3. Touch screen

4. RFID reader

5. Cash Validator with 15 notes escrow

6. Coin Validator with 10 coins escrow

7. The cash box has the capacity to hold 25,000 notes and 3,000 coins.



The basic difference between automatic ticket vending machine (ATVM) installed upto now and CoTVM is that ATVM can issue tickets through smart cards only whereas CoTVM can issue tickets using cash (notes & coins) and smart cards. It can also be used for recharging these smart cards.



Security of CoTVM

The machine has two access doors, both at the front side of the machine and is equipped with mechanical & electronic locks. One door is used for maintenance activity by the service engineer. The second door is for accessing the cash box and is integrated with an alarm system. The alarm will go off whenever the door is opened by any unauthorized person. The machine has a cash box with electro mechanical lock at the bottom. Whenever the authorized supervisor wants to open the cash box to takeout shift cash, he/she will gain access to the machine by using a supervisory smart card and his password. After entering the password, machine will print the Daily Trains Cash-cum-Summary Book (DTC) for accountal of the collected cash.

Commissioning of CoTVM


On 01.09.2015, 6 CoTVMs were inaugurated at New Delhi of Northern Railway and 08 CoTVMs at Sealdah & Howrah stations of Eastern Railway. So far, total 48 CoTVMs have been commissioned over Northern Railway and Eastern Railway.



Train Enquiry Mobile Application on iOS platform


Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), the IT arm of Indian Railways, has enhanced the train enquiry system by developing mobile apps. Mobile app for Windows 8 and Android were launched earlier and are widely used by rail passengers. Now one more step ahead, mobile app for iOS platform has also been developed and ready for launch. It has now become easier for the rail passengers to track information on expected arrival and departure timings of a particular train and other information.



National Train Enquiry System (NTES) is the base system which provides information to public about train running on near real time through various interfaces like nationwide unique rail enquiry number 139, website (www.trainenquiry.com), mobile interfaces, Touch Screens, Face to Face enquiry and Display Boards at stations.



One of the best features of the app is ‘spot your train’ which provides information such as its current position, expected time of arrival and departure at a particular station. Other features are ‘train schedule’, ‘train between station’, ‘live station’, ‘information on cancelled, rescheduled & diverted trains’. ‘Live Station’ query provides list of trains expected to arrive at/depart from any station in next 2 or 4 hours.

Thus, CRIS has made available train enquiry app for three most commonly used mobile platforms viz. Windows, Android and iOS.

The NTES app is available as a free download from App store. more