Bugs in train ticketing system identified
Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com
Chennai: 11.06.2018
A fortnight ago, when Tiruvallur resident K Baskar tried to book an unreserved ticket from Tiruvallur to Madurai via Arakkonam and Chengalpet, he was told by the booking clerk that the ticket would be available only through Chennai Central or Egmore.
Another route was through the Katpadi, Tiruvannamalai and Villupuram, which was a longer route. This translates into passengers having to pay a fare little higher. Moreover, the system could also not provide tickets from Tiruvallur to certain locations in Andhra Pradesh, despite trains bound for those regions stopping at the station. This meant that travellers would have to go to Chennai Central or Egmore to book the tickets due to a defect in the Railways booking system. Not only is this an issue for the passengers, it is one for the officials as the crowd at terminal stations gets bigger.
After this was highlighted, the Southern Railway’s commercial department has started a process to add such combinations of railway stations into their system. For instance, on May 30, the department took cognisance of Baskar’s suggestions and added the Tiruvallur to Madurai via Arakkonam and Chengalpet combination and the stations between Vijaywada and Vishakapatnam for the Allepey-Dhanbad express train in their system software.
However, Baskar, who is a member of the Chennai Divisional Rail Users Consultative Committee (DRUCC), says that there are many such combinations of stations for which tickets are currently unavailable in the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS).
For example, the unreserved ticket from Salem town to Gummidipoondi is available only through Vridhachalam, Villupuram, Chengalpet, Tambaram and Chennai Egmore. However, the shortest route is through Salem junction, Jolarpet, Arakkonam and Chennai Central. The latter combination is not available in the Railway’s software.
A complete list of such unavailable combinations collected by Baskar and other railway passengers has been given to Southern Railway. “The Chief Booking Supervisor (CBS) at Tiruvallur has been instructed to issue system Blank Paper Ticket (BPT) for destinations which don’t have UTS database route,” a senior official said.
Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com
Chennai: 11.06.2018
A fortnight ago, when Tiruvallur resident K Baskar tried to book an unreserved ticket from Tiruvallur to Madurai via Arakkonam and Chengalpet, he was told by the booking clerk that the ticket would be available only through Chennai Central or Egmore.
Another route was through the Katpadi, Tiruvannamalai and Villupuram, which was a longer route. This translates into passengers having to pay a fare little higher. Moreover, the system could also not provide tickets from Tiruvallur to certain locations in Andhra Pradesh, despite trains bound for those regions stopping at the station. This meant that travellers would have to go to Chennai Central or Egmore to book the tickets due to a defect in the Railways booking system. Not only is this an issue for the passengers, it is one for the officials as the crowd at terminal stations gets bigger.
After this was highlighted, the Southern Railway’s commercial department has started a process to add such combinations of railway stations into their system. For instance, on May 30, the department took cognisance of Baskar’s suggestions and added the Tiruvallur to Madurai via Arakkonam and Chengalpet combination and the stations between Vijaywada and Vishakapatnam for the Allepey-Dhanbad express train in their system software.
However, Baskar, who is a member of the Chennai Divisional Rail Users Consultative Committee (DRUCC), says that there are many such combinations of stations for which tickets are currently unavailable in the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS).
For example, the unreserved ticket from Salem town to Gummidipoondi is available only through Vridhachalam, Villupuram, Chengalpet, Tambaram and Chennai Egmore. However, the shortest route is through Salem junction, Jolarpet, Arakkonam and Chennai Central. The latter combination is not available in the Railway’s software.
A complete list of such unavailable combinations collected by Baskar and other railway passengers has been given to Southern Railway. “The Chief Booking Supervisor (CBS) at Tiruvallur has been instructed to issue system Blank Paper Ticket (BPT) for destinations which don’t have UTS database route,” a senior official said.
No comments:
Post a Comment