After mayor’s assurance on lifting of all curbs, activists say time to use ticketing machines, self-vending kiosks to full capacity to avoid long queues at booking counters so passengers can travel smoothly
Passengers wait in a long queue to book tickets at Diva station
With a dip in daily COVID-19 figures and Mumbai Mayor’s assurance that all remaining restrictions would be withdrawn, commuter organisations and activists said it was time for ticket machines and self-vending kiosks to operate in full capacity so that passengers could travel seamlessly.
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Railway officials said that ticket vending machines on Western Railway had opened partially but only with validators, so that vaccination status of commuters buying tickets could be verified. Central Railway is yet to start the machines.
As per latest passenger statistics, Mumbai suburban railway passenger numbers reached around 55 lakh—29,37,898 on Western Railway and around 35 lakh on Central Railway—on Tuesday.
Passenger associations on Wednesday said the resumption of the machines would ease the burden on booking counters. “At Thane station, the queue for booking tickets was too long even at 3 pm which is a non-peak hour. It is high time that the railways restored the machines that have been lying unused,” said Nandkumar Deshmukh, president of Federation of Suburban Passengers Association.
“There are already long queues at railway stations for tickets, and the machines will be of help,” said Shailesh Goyal, former member of National Rail Users’ Consultative Council.
“Smaller stations like Kalwa, Mumbra, Diva on the Central Railway are the most affected. Not everyone is tech savvy to use the mobile ticketing app,” said the vice-president of the Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh, one of the oldest and biggest passenger associations.
Railway officials said that as per the prevailing guidelines of the state, provision of mandatory checks on vaccination status has been enabled through the mobile ticketing app and through validators on Western Railway and that there was no immediate plan to start unmonitored ticket machines. “We are running booking windows at the fullest capacity. The proposal of opening ATVMs with a facilitator is under consideration as the vaccination status of commuters needs to be verified,” Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer, Central Railway, said.
“While booking windows were already open, around 60 automatic ticket vending machines with facilitators were also operational,” said Western Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Sumit Thakur.
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