THE UNRESERVED TICKETING SYSTEM OF INDIAN RAILWAYS By Vikram Chopra, Director Operations, Centre for Railway Information Systems

17 million passengers travel by Indian Railways every day. Less than 1 million travel on reserved tickets, which guarantee them a seat or sleeping berth. The remaining 16 million buy unreserved tickets at more than 6500 stations across the country, which give them the right to board and travel by coaches or trains nominated for unreserved passengers but do not guarantee a seat or sleeping berth. Around 9 million of the 16 million unreserved passengers are daily passengers commuting mainly for business, to work or to study, either within the same city or to nearby cities and towns. Earlier all ticketing was through manually issued pre-printed card tickets or paper tickets. As the numbers of trains run and the passengers carried increased phenomenally over the years, the logistics, of indenting, procuring, distributing, stocking, issuing and accounting for such a large number of tickets, posed a formidable challenge to the Indian Railways. In 1985, computerised ticketing for reserved tickets was introduced in Delhi. This system, known as the Passenger Reservation System (PRS), proved extremely successful, both from the administration and the public perspectives, and over the next decade was extended to cover most of the stations where trains with reserved accommodation stopped. PRS has kept pace with emerging technologies and today you can buy a reserved ticket through the internet and through mobile phones. Unreserved ticketing, which accounted for the bulk of the tickets issued but catered predominantly to the ordinary second class passenger who paid the lowest fares and was perceived as a subsidised customer, was by and large technologically

neglected till 2002 when a computerised Unreserved Ticketing System for Indian Railways was conceived, sanctioned and introduced in Delhi as a pilot project. The system was designed, developed and implemented in-house by the Centre for Railway Information Systems the IT arm of the Indian Railways.

Background

Most people, when they think of railway tickets, think of a reserved ticket. A reserved ticket is associated with a passenger journey by a particular train in an assigned coach on an assigned seat or berth. In some cases when the bookings are full at the time of purchase of a ticket, the passenger has an option of buying a unconfirmed ticket either one which is a RAC (reservation against cancellation) or a wait listed one. A RAC ticket assures the passenger of a nominated seat on the train with the hope of a berth if there is a cancellation or if a passenger with a confirmed ticket does not show up. The wait listed passenger either gets confirmed against cancellations or has to change travel plans if it remains unconfirmed. Some of the more adventurous ones, board the train in the hope of obtaining a place en route.

The story of reserved tickets and the romance associated with it is well documented. But that is only six percent of the total passenger traffic. The other 94% of the passengers buy tickets which are neither for a specific train nor for an assigned seat. The unreserved passengers account for 16 of the 17 million passengers daily on the Indian Railways. They get tickets for a destination and are free to board either any train

which has all unreserved accommodation or any coach nominated for unreserved passengers on trains that have both reserved and unreserved accommodation. The only limitation is that the journey should be completed within a specified time window. A seat is not guaranteed. The validity of the ticket is usually up to midnight of the day for which the ticket is issued except for the commuter services of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai where journeys must commence within 1-2 hours of ticket purchase.

Unreserved passengers mainly travel in ordinary second class coaches, which have the lowest fares, but contribute over Rs. 8700 crores annually to railway revenues, which is around 53% of Indian Railways income from passenger traffic.

Unlike the reserved passengers, who generally book their seats in advance, the unreserved passengers normally buy their tickets just before boarding their trains. So demand for tickets peaks just before departure of popular trains at all stations and during office opening and closing hours in big cities. In such a situation if a passenger cannot be sold a ticket quickly and conveniently, the railway is likely to lose a business opportunity because the passenger will either opt for an alternate mode of transport or, worse, travel without a ticket.

Till the 1990s, tickets were manually issued. The ticket was normally a Printed Card Ticket (PCT) which had all the details like origin, destination, class, fare etc. preprinted. The booking clerk had to stamp the date and time of issue using a dating

machine. The system worked well for decades but when there was a dramatic increase in traffic various problems began to surface: 1. Every station had to stock tickets for every possible destination, combined with every class of travel, every type of train service, route and concession, which could be accessed from that station, regardless of the frequency of demand. Since indenting, procuring and distributing tickets for such a large number of stations involved elaborate, expensive and time consuming procedures, stations were required to stock 10-20 months requirement of tickets, depending on their consumption patterns. This meant that busy stations had to stock millions of tickets and zealously protect them from termites, rodents, leaky roofs etc. because each PCT had a monetary value. They would also have to guard it from human miscreants. 2. As the number of passengers increased it became increasingly difficult to ensure that every station always had its full requirement of tickets on time. This lead to a greater dependence on paper tickets, where the Booking Clerk filled in the ticket details in a pre-printed format. Paper tickets were prone to frauds by the ticket issuers and caused complaints of overcharging. 3. Since PCTs had the fare pre-printed on them, whenever a fare change was to be implemented the station staff at each station had to manually correct the fare on each ticket in stock. This not only led to wastage of manpower and errors but also increased the opportunities for malpractice leading to

complaints. It was also difficult to ensure that such a large number of geographically disparate stations implemented the new fares on schedule, resulting either in loss of railway revenue or overcharging of the passenger depending on whether the fares were going up or down. 4. PCTs were also prone to misuse in the form of fake tickets which couldnt easily be detected and re-use if the issue date impression was faint. 5. At important junction stations the number of types of tickets to be sold became so high that one counter could not possibly handle tickets for all destinations. This lead to the introduction of direction or destination specific counters which often caused inequitable distribution of queues and passenger dissatisfaction. 6. Tickets had to be bought from the station of journey origination only and on the date of journey as providing more flexibility would have increased the type and number of tickets to be stocked beyond manageable limits. 7. The system required elaborate accountal processes which not only resulted in the creation of a large back office but consumed half an hour of each Booking Clerks ticket issuing shift as each ticket in stock at the window had to be taken or handed over. 8. Accounting reports were sent manually to Zonal railway head quarters on a 10 day periodicity. These were often missed or incomplete so there was no reliable and up to date revenue accountal at the central level.

A step towards modernisation

The first tentative steps towards computerising unreserved ticketing were taken in the 1990s when microprocessor based Self Printing Ticketing Machines (SPTMs) were introduced at selected busy stations of Indian Railways. SPTMs were stand alone devices, which issued tickets and then transferred the transaction records at the end of the day to a PC kept at each station which generated accounting reports. There was no connectivity beyond the station level. These machines highlighted the advantages of computerising ticketing: 1. Large stocks of pre-printed tickets were not required. The machines printed the details of each ticket on demand on pre-formatted security paper. 2. Paper tickets were eliminated. 3. SPTM tickets could not easily be faked or re-used. 4. Universal counters selling tickets for all directions became possible. 5. Station Accounting was done by the computer, saving manual effort.

Why UTS was conceived

After the initial enthusiasm that SPTMs generated, the drawbacks became visible: 1. Under the manual system, fare and business logic changes were notified and communicated to each station in writing and through telephone. Implementation was a local responsibility. With SPTMs each machines

programming logic and data base had to be corrected individually by a trained engineer. 2. It was difficult to ensure that all SPTM data bases and programs were current and in sync. 3. While a passenger could buy a ticket from any counter at a station, cancellation had to be done at the same counter from which the ticket was bought. 4. Station level revenue accountal was computerised but the data had to still be manually carried to each Zonal railway headquarter for central accounting which continued to be unreliable and out of date. 5. Since strict control over correctness of programs and database was not feasible, frauds occurred, and of greater concern, were detected more by happenstance than through inbuilt systemic checks. 6. The hardware design, particularly the ticket printing mechanism, was deficient and prone to tampering as well as frequent breakdowns because of the tough environmental conditions at railway stations. Unlike the reserved ticketing system which closes for a few hours every night allowing time for hardware and software maintenance, unreserved ticketing requires 24x7 operations.

What the Railways learnt from the experiment with SPTMs was that computerisation of unreserved ticketing was not just advantageous but inevitable if larger volumes of traffic were to be handled. However, the system required had to be a well

integrated centralised system, supporting 24x7 service availability at all stations, using customised hardware and having real time accounting at all levels to preclude frauds and providing reliable revenue data to management. From this realisation was conceived the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS).

The SPTM project implementation was decentralised with various Zonal railways entering into agreements with private and public sector companies who provided the hardware and software. For UTS it was decided that the work should be done in house and IRs IT arm, the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), was formally entrusted this project on a turnkey basis in March 2002. The mandate was to deliver a pilot project covering 23 stations in Delhi Area within 5 months. The task included designing the system, developing the software, procuring the hardware, setting up the data communication network, training the railway staff and implementing the system.

The birth of UTS

The biggest challenge before CRIS was designing a well integrated centralised system, supporting 24x7 service availability at all stations. Such a system envisages a central repository of data which requires an efficient, high quality, robust and reliable data communication network that was not readily available at the time, even in Delhi. CRIS opted to design and create an exclusive ticketing network based on the state-of-thepractice TCP/IP protocol suite, with a highly scalable routing domain using OSPF-an international standard protocol, having an inverted tree with partial mesh topology and

appropriate redundancies to avoid single point of failures. Every station was to be connected through two communication channels-one leased from MTNL/BSNL and the other from the railways internal communication network.

Despite this it was felt that since even the shortest disruption in ticketing at busy stations like Delhi, New Delhi, Ghaziabad and Nizamuddin would cause unacceptable loss of revenue as well as public dissatisfaction, a pure centralised system could not be risked. So it was decided to opt for a hybrid system. A central computer would directly serve the less important stations where some disruption in service could be tolerated by temporarily switching back to the manual system. The busy stations, Delhi, New Delhi, Ghaziabad and Nizamuddin would have station servers connected to the central computer. Tickets at these stations would be issued by the station server which would also update the central server as long as the network was available. During network disruptions the station server would work in stand alone mode but once connectivity was restored the two computers would talk to each other and bring their databases into sync. To ensure close to 100% availability of the computer system, 100% redundancy was provided in the hardware configuration at both the station and the central level so that if one computer failed the other would automatically take over.

Despite the complexity of the task and the almost impossibly stiff target, CRIS delivered the pilot project on time. UTS went online at New Delhi on Independence Day, 2002.

Teething problems

While the hybrid design of the system did take care of the issues pertaining to the reliability of the data com network, it created other problems. Firstly the environs of railway stations were not conducive for keeping sensitive equipment like computer servers. Space was a constraint at busy stations which prevented creation of a suitable infrastructure. Secondly, the need for replicating data to the central server made the software environment that much more complex and difficult to manage.

After considerable deliberations, the Railway Board decided to do away with the hybrid system and do all further implementation of UTS with a conventional centralised system.

The second UTS data centre was established at Patna on October 1, 2003, the third at Kolkata on October 11, 2004 and the fourth at Gorakhpur on October 14, 2004.

As UTS moved from metros to smaller towns the hazards of having a centralised system without a fully reliable data com network began to surface. It was realised that despite the telecom revolution the kind of network availability that a sensitive, high intensity, 24x7 application like UTS required was still a distant dream, at least for small towns and villages. Further, once the public and the railway staff got accustomed to a computerised ticketing system they were loathe returning to the manual system, even temporarily during failures. CRIS had to find an innovative solution.

The innovative solution The obvious answer was to provide a PC at every counter to issue tickets and transfer the transaction details to the central computer as was being done by the station servers. The advantage of PCs was that they required less skill to maintain than the servers and also needed a less controlled environment. The downside to PCs was that they were essentially insecure devices in the hands of a reasonably IT savvy person which could be dangerous for a cash transacting system like UTS. They also had components that were prone to failure in inhospitable conditions.

CRIS then turned to thin clients or diskless PCs. They were more secure and had no moving parts so did not fail so frequently. The limitation was that their memory resided on a chip and was of limited size. No body had run an online real time application like UTS on thin clients.

CRIS worked with the software industry to customise the operating system, Linux, and the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), Sybases ASA, and create a trimmed version, capable of handling the essentials of the ticketing application but small enough to be accommodated on a thin client chip. At the same time, the UTS software was distilled by CRIS to suit a diskless PC. Thin clients provide the advantages of a full fledged station server without its disadvantages.

Expansion of UTS Initially UTS was provided at large station only but with the confidence gained from the initial deployment the Ministry of Railways decided to spread it across the entire network. A decision was taken that the expansion will cover even E class stations thus covering almost every location that sells tickets. E class stations refer to the smallest class of stations and are typically small roadside stations located in the countryside. In the next two years all the stations number about 6250 will be equipped with at least one terminal and dispensing tickets from the Unreserved Ticketing System. Even though the technology is proven and the system sturdiness is tested there are many hurdles to be crossed to make this a reality. Most importantly there are issues about providing uninterrupted power supply and meeting the maintenance requirements. The Railways are familiar with providing trouble shooting facilities at the most remotest locations for their installations. However, since the maintenance contracts for some of the equipment will have to be outsourced the industry will have to rise to this challenge and provide services all over India. The contract design will take care of some of the concerns on this issue but contract implementation is expected to be difficult. The Railways have been asked to gear up to this new work conditions and it is hoped that the Industry will also be able to achieve higher standards of service expected in this scenario. The expansion of the system is not only geographical. In terms of technology too there have been initiatives to take the system further. Short lead passengers in Mumbai and other suburban areas require tickets quickly and easily. In order to facilitate this Automatic Ticket Vending Machines were conceptualised and deployed to begin with in Mumbai area. These machines permit the passenger to issue his/her own ticket using a

smart card. The interface and the enabling software has been designed by CRIS and includes a graphic display of route maps as well as tri-lingual menu options. These machines are operational at Mumbai & Chennai and very soon are expected to be available at Kolkata, Secunderabad and Delhi area.

The Future The future holds many possibilities in the realm of unreserved ticketing. The Railways are considering a franchising/private partnership model for these automatic vending machines or privately operated ticket vending kiosks. There is also a scheme that provides employment where an entrepreneur can become an agent selling UTS tickets. The most exciting development is the mobile ticketing facility being designed. This would allow passengers to conduct their ticketing transaction over the cell phone. In view of the constraints in the current technologies the transaction will be completed through a kiosk where a ticket will be printed. In the future if the technology provides a secure solution we could consider providing the ticket on the cell phone as an image. Concerns 1. There are a few concerns as the system is proliferates to remote corners of the country. As mentioned earlier power supply could be an issue and the Railways are thinking of innovative solutions in areas where the tracks are electrified. Maintenance of hardware equipment also is an area of concern and CRIS is working on more efficient procurement practices and contract implementation strategies to address this. The training of staff at remote locations is another challenge as also inculcating the culture of caring for the machine. The Railways

have decided to provide only thin clients in the future. These are sophisticated machines especially considering the environment in which they will be kept. Unlike the earlier generation of dumb terminals these machines are also contain more software components. The administration of this software located in remote corners is another major challenge for CRIS. Lessons The success of this project probably has many lessons for other government agencies trying to improve public delivery systems. In fact the failures and setbacks during the course of the execution of the project also provide important clues on how to manage such projects. Ideally a case study should be done by an academic institute documenting these lessons. However, a few broad lessons are suggested here and further research can help refine these. First and foremost I think it is important to acknowledge the wisdom of creating an IT organization like CRIS. The Railways have always been pioneers in IT systems for customer convenience. The Passenger Reservation System is another big success story and now the Unreserved Ticketing System. The big advantage of having an organisation like CRIS is the fact that it acts as a extremely good agent for the Railways. In most other principal agent relationships the Government department directly contracts with an IT firm or software developer. However, these efforts often fail because of the asymmetric information. CRIS has technical staff, software and hardware experts as well as domain knowledge experts. The combination becomes very effective in designing, developing and executing IT projects.

Apart from this key lesson there is one more I wish to emphasize here. The second important lesson is something that is common to every project. The constant analysis of feedback from the users and acting upon these has been crucial to the success of the project. Sometimes IT projects lose sight of the big picture and the ultimate user and ths leads to a situation where technically everything is near perfect but there is no real solution. The bottom line on this project has been that the customer should benefit not just the Railways or its employees. Every public delivery system can never lose sight of this most basic objective.