– Indian Railway starts e-tickets and Indian Airlines uses ATM receipt as a boarding pass!!

This is progress! The Indian Railways is moving ahead with times. When most of private airlines DONT have an e-ticket…. the world’s largest employer is giving out e-ticketing!

Life just became a lot simpler for the train traveller. Instead of booking a ticket on the internet and waiting for it to be delivered home, the Indian Railways has now extended the e-ticketing concept to four trains under Western Railway.

All one has to do is take the e-ticket print-out along with a photo ID card before hopping onto the train.

The railways has, in a way, taken a leaf out of the aviation sector. Jet Airways had started the print-a-ticket-to-fly concept earlier this year. Indian Airlines went a step further and tied up with IDBI Bank last week to offer tickets through their ATMs—transaction slip generated by ATMs can be used to board the flight.

Now, keeping pace with the changing times, Indian Railways has started the e-ticketing scheme as a pilot project on two New Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi Express trains from August 12, 2005.

Encouraged by the response, the railways has extended the facility for the 20092010 Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express, the 29512952 New Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani Express, 29532954 Mumbai-Hazrat Nizamuddin August Kranti Rajdhani Express and the 29572958 New Delhi-Ahmedabad Swarn Jayanti Rajdhani Express.

Shailendra Kumar, Chief Public Relations Officer of WR, told TOI that the e-ticketing for these four trains would start from November 5.

“Under this facility, prospective passengers can book tickets from the comfort of their homes until the chart is finalised a few hours before departure,” said Kumar.

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