Railway ticket windows say no to card payments

New Delhi: Cash is the only form of currency being accepted at ticket booking counters of the New Delhi Railway Station.

Before setting out for their journeys, many passengers on Monday had to endure a serpentine queue outside the only functioning ATM, which is tucked below the foot overbridge towards the Ajmeri Gate end of the station. Since December 10, railways have stopped accepting abolished banknotes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations.

There are over 20 railway reservation offices across the city with little or no arrangement for digital payment.

“I spent nearly Rs 2,000 for my ticket which is equivalent to a three-hour-long wait in an ATM queue,” one of the passengers, who bought a ticket from a reservation counter at the New Delhi railway station, said.

While three of the booking counters at the station denied accepting payment through a debit or credit card, a railway official at counter number 25 said that the card swipe machine there was not working.

According to a Northern Railways spokesperson, at least 20 point of sale (PoS) machines have been installed at the ticket reservation counters at New Delhi railway station, Tughlakabad, Subzi Mandi, Kirti Nagar, AIIMS and Delhi Cantonment.

Passengers outside the Indian Bank ATM at New Delhi railway station said that the machine is only dispensing the newly-minted 2,000 rupee notes. “Many a times, booking counters run out of change,” Jayanta Prasad, a frequent local passenger, said.

Some of the other passengers in the ATM queue told this newspaper that they are standing in queue so that they can withdraw enough cash to last them through their journeys. The scramble for cash was such that when a person tried to check whether a deserted Federal Bank ATM in the subway of the New Delhi Metro station was dispensing cash, three-four people immediately queued up behind the person.

The Northern Railways spokesperson said that more card swipe machines will be installed at reservation counters soon.