A cell phone application was introduced to book suburban train tickets. Only 646 people have utilized this application.
For the first time in the country, M Ticketing for suburban trains were introduced in Chennai and Mumbai. Through the scheme, commuters registering their mobile numbers on the application could book suburban train tickets while making payment through a Railway Wallet, recharged at the counter or online on IRCTC. Booked tickets need to be printed at Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs), with the facility being operational at 32 ATVMs across 18 stations on the Chennai suburban routes.
A Southern Railway official while speaking about this said, “6227 people have downloaded M Tickets applications. Out of them, only 284 have recharged. 284 people have so far booked 523 tickets. The railways have got an income of Rs 35, 300.”
In Chennai suburban stations 5 to 6 lakhs are being sold every day. The revenue generated through the ticket sales is Rs 14 lakhs. But during the last 2 months, only 523 tickets have been sold through M Ticketing. This shows that the scheme has not reached the people well.