Commuters enjoy free metro ride as ticket machines fail
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai:18.08.2019
Passengers who walked into metro stations on Saturday morning were given free rides after the ticketing systems conked out due to a technical glitch. Commuters also complained that electronic information boards malfunctioned, displaying wrong schedules. CMRL said it rectified the problem around 10.30am.
Ticketing vending machines, computer systems and the automatic fare collection (AFC) gates started malfunctioning around 8am. Commuters trying to recharge smart cards or buy tokens at ticket vending machines couldn’t operate the kiosks.
As a team began identifying the fault, station staff immediately took control by opening the AFC gates and allowing commuters to walk in without paying the ticket fare. Passengers were issued a manual paper ticket to pass through the AFC gates.
Shankaran, a government employee who commutes regularly between Anna Nagar and LIC, said he clocked in late at work as the glitch disrupted his travel plans. “The display boards had been showing wrong train timing since Friday. The train from Anna Nagar to Central arrived late and I missed the connecting train at Central towards LIC. I ended up going late to work,” he said.
A metro rail official said the fault was with a master clock which controls the telecommunication and ticketing systems across all metro stations, including the ticket vending machines, computer systems at the ticket counters and the automatic fare collection (AFC) gates where smart cards are swiped for payment.
“One of the clocks automatically turned to its default settings throwing all the systems out of gear,” an official said.
A few metro rail staff members said Saturday’s incident would have resulted in CMRL losing revenue due to free rides, as weekend footfalls in the stations usually touch an average of 90,000.
CMRL said the problem was sorted after more than two hours
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai:18.08.2019
Passengers who walked into metro stations on Saturday morning were given free rides after the ticketing systems conked out due to a technical glitch. Commuters also complained that electronic information boards malfunctioned, displaying wrong schedules. CMRL said it rectified the problem around 10.30am.
Ticketing vending machines, computer systems and the automatic fare collection (AFC) gates started malfunctioning around 8am. Commuters trying to recharge smart cards or buy tokens at ticket vending machines couldn’t operate the kiosks.
As a team began identifying the fault, station staff immediately took control by opening the AFC gates and allowing commuters to walk in without paying the ticket fare. Passengers were issued a manual paper ticket to pass through the AFC gates.
Shankaran, a government employee who commutes regularly between Anna Nagar and LIC, said he clocked in late at work as the glitch disrupted his travel plans. “The display boards had been showing wrong train timing since Friday. The train from Anna Nagar to Central arrived late and I missed the connecting train at Central towards LIC. I ended up going late to work,” he said.
A metro rail official said the fault was with a master clock which controls the telecommunication and ticketing systems across all metro stations, including the ticket vending machines, computer systems at the ticket counters and the automatic fare collection (AFC) gates where smart cards are swiped for payment.
“One of the clocks automatically turned to its default settings throwing all the systems out of gear,” an official said.
A few metro rail staff members said Saturday’s incident would have resulted in CMRL losing revenue due to free rides, as weekend footfalls in the stations usually touch an average of 90,000.
CMRL said the problem was sorted after more than two hours
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