Mumbai: A major technical flaw in Indian Railways’ newly launched RailOne ticketing app has allowed passengers to book unreserved tickets while already aboard a moving train—defeating the very purpose of its geo-fencing feature, which was designed to prevent such misuse.
How the lapse came to light
The lapse came to light during a routine ticket-checking drive on 6th March in a down AC local heading towards Kalyan, when a ticket examiner caught a passenger who had booked a ticket mid-journey. Central Railway has since written to the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), the agency responsible for developing and maintaining RailOne, flagging the glitch and seeking immediate rectification.
According to a senior railway official, multiple such cases have been reported since March 1, when Central Railway discontinued the older UTS app and migrated commuters to RailOne. However, the first confirmed detection occurred on March 6.
Timeline of incidents
The geo-fencing system is designed to allow ticket booking only when a passenger is physically present at a station or within a designated zone. Its failure effectively reopens a loophole that the Railways had earlier attempted to plug.
Notably, the UTS app’s QR code-based ticket withdrawal system was scrapped a few months ago after widespread misuse. Now, a fresh vulnerability has surfaced in its replacement. Officials are also grappling with a separate and growing concern—passengers allegedly using AI tools to generate morphed or forged tickets for daily commuting.
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