Western Railway to procure 400 new ATVMs by this month end

They’ll replace older machines and will be placed at the end of railway foot over bridges at most railway stations to enable commuters to buy tickets as soon as they enter the premises

Railway commuters now have some reason to rejoice. By the end of this month, the Western Railway (WR) will have procured 400 Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs). They will soon replace older ATVMs. Some new sealed machines have already been placed at Borivli, Kandivli and Andheri railway stations since a week.

The new ATVMs

“We are procuring around 400 new ATVMs that would be installed at various railway stations by the end of this month,” said Sharat Chandrayan, chief public relation officer of WR. Until recently there were many issues with the older ATVMs. Most of them were not functional and railway authorities had received a lot of complaints from the public regarding the same. One of the major problems was with the reading of cards and printing of tickets, which has now been sorted.

Sources said the new machines would be placed at the end of railway foot over bridges (FOBs) at most railway stations. This will allow people to buy tickets as soon as they enter the premises, rather than standing in serpentine queues. Officials said that ATVMs would also be placed at the entrance of Metro rail at Andheri station on the WR premises as commuters have complained that there is no integration between the two rail systems when it comes to ticketing. Moreover, even the renewal of ATVM smart cards will be easier and at least one ticket counter at every station will have provision for its renewal. If commuters buy or renew smart cards then they get an additional refill of five per cent on the amount purchased or refilled.

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