WR goes cashless: Starts installing kiosks for booking outstation & local tickets via debit cards

In a bid to go cashless, Western Railway’s Mumbai division has decided to install Points Of Sale (POS) machines at multiple stations throughout the city, allowing passengers to book long distance and suburban travel tickets with their debit or credit cards.

At present, there are 125 counters of passenger reservation system (PRS) for booking reserved tickets of long-distance trains and another 330 unreserved ticketing system (UTS) for booking suburban travel tickets and passes on WR.

However, just one counter is reserved for debit and credit card transactions at Mumbai Central and Churchgate, that too only for long distance trains.

With the government betting big on digital payments, and railways being one of the most pivotal entities during the transition, WR authorities have decided to install addition POS for both outstation and suburban booking.

According to WR’s divisional railway manager Mukul Jain, 41 terminals will be installed at 26 stations for PRS initially.

The installation process has already began at seven stations, which includes three at Malad, two at Vasai and one each at Kandivli and Jogeshwari.

In addition, another 10 machines will be installed for booking UTS tickets at suburban stations.

The first machine for UTS will be installed at Churchgate station by next week.

According to a report in a leading daily, the State Bank of India will also provide infrastructure to allow transaction via pay wallets and Unified Payment Interface (UPS) systems going forward.

Just last week, the centre announced a 0.5 percent discount for people buying monthly seasonal tickets on the Mumbai suburban railway network through digital payment mode. The offer will be effective from January 1.