Think of the commuters in Mumbai

Coupon-vending machines have been in place on the city’s suburban railway network for more than a decade now. Over time, the machines have become part of the scenery. Every now and again you will find one that doesn’t work; then again you will be surprised by one that does.

The CVMs, as they are popularly known in a city usually short on time and accustomed to abbreviations, are a convenience for more than seven million commuters. When your season ticket has expired and you don’t have time to wait in queue, out comes the coupon booklet and you rush to the nearest CVM to punch the required denomination and proceed.

Now, the railway ministry has ordered the local railways to discontinue use of these machines by March 2012 and encourage the use of smart card-based automated ticket-vending machines. Reason: the CVMs are not part of the railways’ computerised ticketing network while the ATVMs are. This means the railways can easily account for tickets sold through the latter but not the former.

It is a dilemma: whether to choose mass commuter convenience and endure financial losses from the loopholes in the CVMs. The machines are doing their job. The problem is that their non-integration with the ticketing servers leaves scope for making duplicates and reselling used coupons. The best solution would be to integrate the CVMs with the servers. If the sale of coupon booklets cannot be accounted for, there must at least be a way to document the number on each coupon with its denomination. If that is not possible, the railways should give commuter convenience priority and allow CVMs to be used for a few years more under strict vigilance till a viable alternative is found. Shutting them down overnight would simply inconvenience commuters.