Pune: Almost a year ago, on November 10, 2016, two days after the demonetisation’s announcement, lakhs of people rushed to railway ticket counters to book tickets in Pune because the railways had announced that they would be accepting cash.
However, after two weeks, a sudden shift was seen at railway reservation counters and other ticket counters in the city as the chaos subsided. The passengers started booking their ticket online preferring the cashless mode of payment.
Today, it’s become a common practice for travellers to use debit or credit card for booking tickets.
According to the Pune Railway Division officials, every day around 3 lakh passengers travel by railway and 78 per cent tickets are for paid via POS machines with debit or credit cards.
The remaining 22 per cent travellers use cash for platform tickets or local journey. The railway officials claim that
passengers are happy that all stations and parcel offices have POS machines and they are using them.
“After the demonetisation move, the railway had started setting up POS machines at all stations in the division. The major 13 ticket counters where maximum tickets are booked went cashless on September 17 this year. Since June, passengers at Pune, Miraj and Kolhapur are using POS machines. These three stations have maximum travellers,” said Krishnath Patil, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager of Pune railway division.
“The movement of passengers at ticket counters is less nowadays because people book tickets online. Those coming to our counters at Deccan, Hadapsar and Swargate are using debit cards. There are some passengers travelling by local trains who are also using debit cards but most of them prefer cash when the ticket costs as low as Rs 10 or Rs 20,” he added.
Ramanand Mishra (68) hails from Allahabad and stays in Kharadi in Pune with his son. He said he always booked his ticket through PRS and always used his debit card, because he is a senior citizen and he prefers a lower berth.
“After demonetisation, I started using my debit card. Earlier, I did not use it because I always misplaced it or forgot the pin number, but now its become my habit to use the pin and the debit card. Using the card is very easy,” he said.
Prashant Mane, who travels frequently from Miraj to many places for business as well as personal purposes said, “After demonetisation, I started using a debit card. I don’t know when I might have to go to Miraj, so if I don’t have cash I can now always use my card to get my ticket.”
