WR decommissions 115 of 195 ATVMs

Even as the number of commuters are increasing on the Western Railway (WR), there isn’t much relief coming their way in terms of ticket queues. The WR has decommissioned 115 out of the 195 Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) on its suburban network.  

The normal lifespan of an ATVM is about five years.  Before being decommissioned, these ATVMs had a share of around 5 per cent in the total tickets sold on WR’s suburban system on a daily basis. They sold 50,000 tickets everyday and earned up to Rs5 lakh. The earnings have now come down to Rs4 lakh, said WR officials. This fall in ticket sales from a non-conventional source is always bad news for the commuter since this would make the queues at the station windows longer.

According to officials, WR’s suburban stations have a total of 332 windows which are proving to be insufficient as the number daily passengers has crossed the 35 lakh mark.  While WR has a plan to buy 490 ATVMs, officials said the process to acquire them has not yet started. It would take almost a year before these machines start coming in since the files will have to go all the way to the railway ministry. Out of the 490 ATVMs, 78 would be for non-suburban stations. “It’s unfortunate that when the railway ministry’s vision 2020 talks about building up a ticket-vending system that allows a commuter to get a ticket within five minutes of arriving at a station, WR is facing such issues,” said a WR official.

Travel travails
The normal life of an ATVM is 5 years

At least 115 out of the 195 existing

ATVMs have been decommissioned

These machines sell 50,000 tickets everyday and earn up to Rs5 lakh

The number of daily passengers has crossed the 35 lakh mark