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UTS (Unreserved Ticketing System)Ticket Booking Mobile App by Indian Railways

The Indian Railways always strives to make improvements to help passengers. It has launched on a pilot basis, a paperless, mobile ticketing system for unreserved suburban train passengers.

The Indian Railways has launched a paperless, mobile ticket booking application for the unreserved category, especially for suburban trains.

This was announced by a senior official of the ministry of the Indian Railways at a recent press meet in the city. The new application is called as UTS (Unreserved Ticketing System) or ‘utsonmobile” helps travellers of suburban trains in the unreserved category to book tickets using their Smartphone.

Install UTS mobile app –

  • Andoriod Mobile – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cris.utsmobile&hl=en
  • Windows Mobile – http://www.windowsphone.com/en-in/store/app/uts/3e586426-65fd-48ea-9efa-9f012ffe24de
  • Indian Railway Official Notification – https://www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in

The utsmobile service was developed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) in order to eliminate the need for printing unreserved tickets. Having booked a ticket by this system, a commuter need not take a print out of the ticket and just needs to show the soft copy of the same to the TTE. This application is available on both Windows and Android platforms.

“The budget proposal was to launch a paperless ticketing system for unreserved passengers and we are implementing it today,” said the official. Besides being a green initiative to save paper (limit cutting down of trees), it also aims to save time for customers by reducing the need to queue up at ticket counters.

As per a pilot program, the system for paperless ticketing for the unreserved segment will be implemented in the 15 stations of the suburban section of Southern Railways, according to the official. He said, “We intend to extend this service to suburban sections of all metros.”

The UTS application can be downloaded from Windows Store or Google Play Store. The app gives onscreen alerts to guide passengers during the process of booking.

The passenger has to maintain a Railway wallet or ‘R- Wallet’ to make use of this application, especially to make payment. First step is registering using mobile phone app or website utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in. When you finish registration, R-wallet for you will be opened on zero-balance basis.

R-wallet will be linked to your mobile number. The R-wallets must be recharged at either at UTS counters provided at suburban stations or through the website utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in. The R-wallet is a closed wallet only meant for rail ticket bookings.

While you apply for a ticket, the system will check whether your R-wallet has sufficient funds. If there is adequate amount, the ticket charge will be deducted and your ticket will be booked. When you cancel a ticket, the amount will be topped up in your R-wallet.

“The mobile UTS has the following features. It enables quick booking, for booking tickets using routes of frequent travel. It enables normal booking for any suburban route. One can cancel tickets and there is management of passenger profile including checking of R-wallet balance,” said an official.

The UTS app can also be used to renew season tickets which will be of great use for passengers of the unreserved segment. After booking ticket, passenger will receive screen for ticket confirmation, which will contain limited information regarding the ticket.

“The UTS aims to help the low income groups as well as regular suburban travellers and tries to provide a computerized, centrally administered system of ticketing over the entire Indian Railways. For developing this amazing system, the CRIS team has won the P.M.’s award for excellence in public administration,” pointed out the railway official.

UTS Mobile Ticketing Service by Indian Railways

The Hon’ble Minister of Railways inaugurated the UTS Mobile Ticketing services ( Unreserved Suburban Tickets ) on December 27th, 2014. UTS or the unreserved ticketing services were a promise by the Indian Railways in making the suburban rail commuting more convenient and trouble-free for the common passenger. 21 million people around the big cities in this country travel on a daily basis into and out of the city. The majority of them use the suburban railway system. In Mumbai, it is called the lifeblood of the city. The system is now operational and now can be used in the Mumbai and Chennai suburban railway systems.

The Registration Process –

First and foremost, those passengers, who would like to use this facility, would have to have a Smartphone. Currently, the smartphones with the Android operating system and the Windows operating systems offer the service. The other two main operating systems the ios and the Blackberry do not support the system. The logic behind that is that people, who use such a system, are generally not the ones who travel by suburban railways.

First, one will have to download the UTS mobile application from the application marketplace of the above two operating systems. The application has been built in-house by the CRIS, which stands for Centre for Railway Information Systems.

The registration can be done in two ways. The passenger can either do it from the mobile application itself or by using the website utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in. In the registration process, the person will have to provide his or her mobile number, name, the city, the default booking train type, the class, the ticket type, the frequently travelled routes and the number of passengers.

The Railway Wallet –

The next thing that the passenger need to do is have a Railway wallet or as they are calling them R Wallet.

The railway wallet is the only method by which ticket can be purchased from the UTS mobile application. First and foremost, a passenger has to register himself or herself in the R wallet ecosystem. Then, they will have to link it to a mobile number. Initially, the railway wallet will show zero balance as one has not added any money to it.

The recharging process of the railway wallet is a very simple proposition. There are two ways of doing it. Either the passenger can approach the numerous UTS counters available in the suburban railway stations to recharge or he can visit the utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in portal to recharge using a credit card, debit card or online banking system.

When a person is making a ticket booking, the application will check if there is enough balance in the r wallet to make the purchase. If there is, then it will make the booking, otherwise, it will prompt to recharge the R wallet. If one cancels the ticket, the amount deducted for the purchase of the ticket will be refunded to the R wallet.

The Train Travel –

After buying the tickets, one will need to carry the mobile phone with him while making the journey. Then when in the source station, the place from where one will start their journey, a passenger will have to locate an ATVM machine. These machines have been set up at all the stations to get printouts of the tickets booked via the mobile application. With this printout in your hand, you are ready to start your journey. Unfortunately, after taking a printout, you cannot cancel your journey.

The Advantages –

There are a number of advantages in using this system. Firstly, it is a much quicker process to book tickets, especially for the routes that you travel frequently. Next is that, one can book tickets for any suburban rail station! The third is that one can cancel a ticket if there is a change of plan. The fourth option is that the application maintains a log of the booked tickets so that you can rebook them quickly if you wish to, and finally, the application tracks your r wallet and tells you if you need to recharge it.

Indian Railways is a large network that caters to the tens of millions of customers every day. With innovations like UTS mobile ticketing service, the bond between the brand Railways and the passengers become a little better.