Title - Rail ticket printing unit shut down

The unit has been operational for over 65 years

Computerisation of the ticketing system and the cost-economics has forced the railways to shut down the century-old ticket printing unit at Mysore, thus effacing a slice of railway heritage in the city.

This is part of the Railway Board’s decision to shut down similar ticket printing units across the country. As of March 1 the unit at Mysore, located on the Divisional Railway office premises had ceased to function. The unit’s fate was sealed early in 2008, when the Railway Board decided against its continuation; pressure on the board by C.H. Vijayashankar, the then Mysore MP who was also on the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways, bought the unit some time.

Sources said the Railway Board’s decision stemmed from one of the recommendations of a review committee. The committee had suggested shutting down the Edmondson Card ticket printing units in Mysore, Garden Reach in Kolkata, Gorakhpur, Ajmer and Kurseong, in a phased manner.

The Edmondson Card was the standard ticket used by the Indian Railways until the introduction of computerised paper tickets. It was first used in the United Kingdom in the 1840s and phased out by 1990. It is still used in some parts of India, but this had become increasingly rare.

The machine-punched cards had different colours to depict different classes, and were issued as platform tickets till recently. Now, they are issued for halt stations. These tickets are currently printed at Tiruchirappali, based on the indent sent by the local officials, and despatched to Mysore.

“However, there is a proposal to introduce the computerised Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) for the existing halt stations across the country. Once it is in place, the Edmondson tickets will be a thing of the past,” sources said.

There were eight employees working in the Mysore ticket printing unit, who have been redeployed at the Central Railway Workshop, Ashokapuram.

The ticket printing unit used to cater to the demands of the Mysore, Bangalore and Hubli divisions of the South Western Railways. It comprised four 65-year-old machines procured from Waterlow & Co. and Sons of London, each capable of printing 4,000 tickets an hour.

Many feel that the usage of the Edmondson Card, a symbol of the British era, is incongruous in present times.

Review committee recommended shutting down all Edmondson Card ticket printing units in India

In its heyday, each machine at the unit could print 4,000 tickets an hour