Soon, the queues in front of ticket counters on the western line will be shortened as the Railways have decided to install 126 new Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) machines on the stations.
According to Hindustan Times, the zonal railway is in the process of installing the new machines at all stations. Apart from the booking offices, the new machines will be installed on the foot overbridges and major entry points of the stations. The installation process is likely to be completed before the year-end.
At present, there are around 370 ATVMs on the western line. The new ATVMs will have improved design as compared to old ones and will have a card insertion option. But the new ATVMs won’t have options of using credit and debit cards for which the commuters will have to wait for some more time. The railways are currently testing the ATVMs with debit and credit card swap facility and approval for such ATVMs are awaited from Railway board. Currently, around 36 lakh travel through the western line and many of them use ATVMs.
