Title - Yet to serve its full potential

Sometimes, a thing which is initially hailed as a great convenience turns out to be just a white elephant. That is what is happening to the Automated Ticket Vending Machines, which were installed in 40 railway stations in the city in 2008, purportedly to spare the EMU train commuters the pain of standing in the serpentine queues, particularly, during rush hour.Like in other stations, at Tambaram station too, which is the third big terminal in the city, the machine looks forlorn and pathetically pushed to the background, silently trying to figure out its raison d’ etre. It stands there just like a showcase piece, especially after 11 a.m.

Waste of time::At the time when the machine was introduced with much fanfare, there was a sort of euphoria; the solution was expected to put an end to the agony of standing in the long winding queues. However, the solution has turned out to be just a mirage. For, the problem of queuing still persists; and the problem of losing precious time and patience has, in fact, become more severe, of late.Not even two per cent of the total ticket sales is transacted through the machines. Going by the cost of the machine, which is said to be around Rs. 3. 5 lakhs, one cannot but doubt that the initiative has become a damp squib.

Why is there a poor patronage from the commuters? It may be due to the ignorance of the methods of operation or due to the strict procedures that are followed.

S. Rajendran, who has been using smartcards for more than a year, narrated wryly his practical difficulties in using the card. Three days before, he had gone to the Tambaram Railway Station, during the lunch hour, to recharge his card. An official at the counter had asked him to wait saying that the person in charge had gone for lunch. Though he was waiting for an hour, he could not get the card recharged on that day, as the printer was not working.

Rajendran, who was frustrated, says, “Every smartcard has a number and it could be automatically topped up after a payment is made, where is the need for print-outs?

Railways can avoid such unnecessary process. Moreover, there are number of counters at the Tambaram station and then why am I not allowed to have the recharge at other counters; when the printers in all other counters are working, why the printer in the smartcard counter is not working on most of the days? If there is a glitch or a hitch in the process, none of the officials comes forward to help the commuters, he commented.

Lack of support

The Southern Railway attempted to deploy its former workers to guide the commuters to use the machine. The attempt was given up for lack of support from within. In some stations, employees are deployed only during rush hour; he collects the cash from the commuters and tries to get the tickets printed for them using the machines, again forming a long queue. It is no different from the normal ticket counters.

When some railway officials’ opinions were sought on this issue, they preferred to remain non-committal or rather silence. But enquiries have brought to light certain factors that led to the sorry state of the ATVMs: Most of the suburban commuters who are travelling to the city every day have season passes and so, there is no need for them to buy smart cards and hence they have need for neither the machine nor the counter. However, one of the officials in the Tambaram station, said, “We have made arrangements and loaded software for buying or renewing season tickets too, using the machines. This facility will come soon, maybe within a few months. Smartcards have been well received with the passengers in a few States, whereas, in Tamil Nadu (even in Chennai) people are reluctant to use these machines.”

However, some are of the view that instead of having installed the machines, the administration should have strengthened the manpower inside the ticket counter to cope with the swelling crowd, a common sight at almost all railway stations in the suburbs and in the city during rush hour.

“Some are of the view that instead of the machines, the administration should have strengthened the manpower”