Return tickets may last only 6 hours

Suggestion due to decreased importance of ticket windows today

Return tickets might have a validity of only six hours after being issued, as railway officials from Mumbai have recommended the same to Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu and asked that it be included in the rail budget to be announced next week.

Currently, a commuter who buys a return ticket on a weekday can use the ticket one-way the next day as well, that is, if you have taken a return ticket on Monday from Thane to CST, you can use the ticket on Tuesday morning from Thane to CST again. The rule was even more relaxed on weekends, for example if you have purchased return ticket on a Saturday the same ticket can be used on the first journey you take on Monday as well.

Officials said that Mr Prabhu himself had asked all the 17 zones in the country to come up with ideas that will increase revenue, as the Indian Railways has been bleeding losses. Commenting on the suggestion to change the return ticket policy, an official said, “The rule was brought in because there were less number of ticket clerks, therefore there would be a long queue at the one and only ticket window that would be open”. But the advent of technology has not made the commuters as heavily dependent on ticket windows as they were before. Technologies like the cash/coin ticket vending machine, automatic ticket vending machine that can be used via the card directly as well facilitators and the recent mobile application for the same. “People have so many ways through which they can buy a ticket now, so a change in the return ticket policy is long overdue. Which is why we have made the recommendation and we expect a good amount of revenue as a result,” added the official.

Commuters who have been taking advantage of the return ticket policy called the development a “very unfair move”.

Tehmina Sabuwala (27) a market researcher who travels from Dockyard Road to Andheri for her job said, “They have just increased the fare a year ago and now this will be a bad move by the minister. He is from Mumbai so he should understand how many people get affected as a result of this kind of change in policy,” she said.