Yesterday, I happened to go to Churchgate station. I decided to buy the Mumbai Suburban Railway Smart Card (aka ATVM Card). I had read about it earlier, and also seen others use it. I thought it might be useful to own a card. Here are the details you need to know (some photographs of the Smart Card / Receipt / Ticket are at the end of this post):
- Unlike the B.E.S.T. Smart Card, the railway smart card allows the card holder to purchase tickets from a machine called "Automated Ticket Vending Machine" (ATVM).
- The ATVMs have been installed at some (not all yet) stations; I've seen ATVMs at some stations that are yet to be made functional. One can be sure that the major stations have multiple functional ATVMs.
- The card is "loaded" with an initial amount (or when it is refilled). The fare of the tickets purchased is deducted from the amount on the card.
- This scheme works on both the Central and Western suburban railway stations. It is valid only for the Mumbai suburban section.
- Go to any ticket counter that is marked (some board near the counter tells you which one) to sell the Smart Card.
- The Smart Card can be loaded / refilled in multiples of Rs. 50, upto Rs. 500
- Initially, the Smart Card itself has a deposit of Rs. 50 (which is refundable under some reasonable conditions mentioned at the back of the Smart Card).
- (Probably) To attract customers to this scheme, the railways are offering a 5% bonus amount on every charge of the card. For example, if you load the card with Rs. 100, your card would actually be loaded with Rs. 105.
- Go to an ATVM. Place the card on the sensor on the ATVM. The ATVM has a touch-screen interface.
- Select the language (Hindi, Marathi, English).
- Choose the destination (zone)...and the station from the railway route map.
- Choose the number of adults and children.
- Select "Print" to print the tickets.
- The tickets are dispensed through the ATVM slot.
- Not all stations have the ATVMs installed. I landed up at Matunga (C. R.) only to find that the ATVMs were still kept in packed plastic covers.
- The card can be used by anyone. So, one of the benefits is that it could be shared by family members. The downside is that if the card is stolen / lost, it could be misused by whoever gets it.
- The time printed on the ATVM-issued ticket is the current time of the ATVM. One is supposed to commence the journey within 1 hour of this time. This is unlike the card tickets issued at the counter. The time is usually rounded up to the next hour. So, if you buy a regular card ticket at 10:05, the time printed on the card ticket would be 11:00. That gives one extra time to commence the journey.
- The user interface of the ATVM is not the best. It took me sometime to figure out how to get the interface in the English language. Second, I could not easily locate Matunga Road (as opposed to Matunga); the map is divided into zones, probably selecting the right zone is enough. It gave me a list of stations after selecting the zone, from which one has to select the destination. The other parts of the interface are also a bit confusing for the new user.
- It is not clear how the ATVM is supposed to "save time" in the long run. In the short run, of course, only those who have the cards line up for the ATVM. Thus, the ATVM queues could be expected to be much, much smaller than the ones at the ticket counters. In the long run, however, if many had these cards, the ATVM queues would probably be longer since it takes quite a while to conduct a transaction at the ATVM.
Here are the images for the front and back of the Smart Card:
The back-side has some "rules" for the refund.
The receipt provided along with the Smart Card that one is supposed to carefully preserve!
A ticket purchased using the Smart Card (Mumbai CST to Matunga).
