Getting railway tickets becomes much easier

New Delhi, Sep 2 (UNI) In yet another move to quicken disbursal of reserved tickets at railway counters, the Railway Ministry has introduced a new software system that displays simultaneously accommodation status in all the alternative trains on a particular route.

''The new facility will help passengers choose the train of their choice with confirmed accommodation, if available, without spending much time in the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) centre,'' a Northern Railway official told UNI.

The new system has become possible through an upgraded software developed by CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems), which is doing path-breaking work in the area of fusing IT and domain expertise for cutting edge technology projects to improve Railways' operational efficiency and customer services.

Accordingly, if a passenger goes to a ticket counter (PRS centre), he will also get ready information on all the alternative trains for the same pair of stations, class and date in case there is a waiting list in his desired train at the time of booking.

''When there is a waiting list in a particular train, the man at the counter has to enter the name of passengers and a new train in computer system all over again, causing delay. This also leads at times to frayed tempers as people in the queue tend to lose their patience over the delay,'' the official said.

Under the new system, the moment the computer shows waiting list in a train, information will also be there on all trains on that route. Once journey details and other reservation information are fed, the accommodation options for all trains on the route will be flashed simultaneously on the computer screen.

''This will allow the passenger and the ticket booking official to view all options in one go. Thus other passengers will not have to spend much time in the PRS centre as waiting time for them will be considerably reduced,'' he said.

To begin with, this facility is available only on Northern Railway, which was made operational from August 31. ''The facility will be expanded to other railway zones in phases,'' he pointed out.

UNI