Ministry of Railways has taken a revolutionary step in the field of digital ticketing for the crores of daily commuters, working employees, businessmen and students traveling every day on the suburban and non-suburban routes of Indian Railways. Commuters traveling daily on the busy rail corridors like Lucknow-Kanpur, Ghaziabad-Delhi, Prayagraj-Varanasi and Meerut-Delhi in Uttar Pradesh and the vast local network of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai had to stand in long queues every month to get season tickets (MST/QST) made at the railway counters. Earlier, there was a restriction on railway ticketing apps that a person could book his own season ticket only through his personal profile. To get passes for other family members or elderly parents, they needed separate smartphones and accounts. Indian Railways has made a revolutionary amendment in the rules of season ticket booking on its modern super app 'RailOne', ending this old and legitimate problem of daily commuters forever. Now a single registered user will be able to easily book and renew season tickets for other family members and co-travellers through his app. 1 user and 5 additional tickets: Know the new 'Shared Season Ticket' formula of RailOne app. This new and convenient system approved by the Railway Board has been formally implemented. Under the new provisions, any valid user registered on the RailOne app can book a season ticket (Shared Season Ticket) for a maximum of 5 other passengers in addition to his individual season ticket. This simply means that any one digital-friendly member of the family can generate monthly, quarterly or half yearly season passes for a total of 6 people in the family (himself + 5 others) from a single smartphone. This will provide the greatest relief to the elderly, rural women or small school children who either do not have smartphones or are not comfortable with online payment gateways and understanding complex digital processes. Now the head of the household or an elder member can get valid railway passes made for all the dependents in a few seconds while sitting in the office or at home. Age limit and validity conditions: The pass will be applicable for self from today and for others from tomorrow. The railway administration has also set some stringent guidelines and eligibility standards to maintain transparency in this facility and prevent any possible fraud in the ticket checking system. According to Senior DCM Kota, Saurabh Jain, two clear divisions have been made regarding age and validity period. If a user is booking a season ticket for himself, his minimum age must be 18 years or above. Tickets booked for oneself will be considered valid for travel on the same day as soon as geo-fencing and geographical verification is completed. On the other hand, if the User books a season ticket for another family member or co-passenger, the minimum age of that co-passenger must be at least 5 years. Additionally, this ticket booked for others will not be valid on the day of booking, but will be effective for travel from the following day of booking. This 24-hour rule has been made so that no person, after seeing the TTE in the train, can try to avoid the fine by hastily making a pass in the name of others on the spot. Digital Verification and QR Code: How will TTE check tickets? Know the rules of photo and PDF. Regarding the verification of this digitally issued shared season ticket, there was a doubt in the minds of the passengers that without the original user's phone, how will another passenger show the ticket in the train. Railways has developed state-of-the-art QR code and photo verification system for this. When you book a season ticket for another person, a unique and encrypted QR code will be printed on the pass with the name, age, identity and clear passport size photograph of the concerned passenger. During the journey, the passenger can show the digital PDF file of this ticket in his mobile phone or can keep its clean printout (hard copy) with him. Ticket Checking Staff (TTE) deployed in the train or at the station premises will be able to instantly verify the authenticity of the ticket by scanning the QR code on the ticket with their modern handheld terminal (HHT) devices. Railways has issued a strict warning to the passengers that merely showing the booking SMS or payment invoice receipt will not be considered a valid document of travel. The passenger must have the original season ticket with photograph and clear QR code; If the QR code is damaged or unreadable, a fine for traveling without ticket may be imposed under railway rules. Travel up to 150 kilometers: Unlimited trips in second class, in which trains will not be allowed? Under the basic rules of Indian Railways, season tickets are issued only for a maximum journey distance of 150 kilometers between two designated stations on both suburban and non-suburban railway sections. This ticket provides unlimited travel facility in Second Class (Unreserved Ordinary Coaches), allowing passengers to travel any number of times per day during its validity period. This facility is available to both general business travelers and students studying at concessional rates alike. However, season ticket holders are not allowed to travel in reserved coaches of trains like Mail, Express, Superfast, Rajdhani, Shatabdi or Vande Bharat under any circumstances. Additionally, this pass is also invalid on premium trains where distance-based restrictions or special fares are applicable. If a season ticket holder is found, even by mistake, in a sleeper or AC coach, he will be treated as without ticket and will have to face stringent financial penalty under the Railways Act. What is RailOne Super App? All services of UTS, IRCTC and Rail Madad on a single platform 'RailOne' app developed by Center for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), the technical wing of Indian Railways, is being considered as the official super app of Indian Railways. Till now, rail passengers had to keep 4 to 5 different apps on their phones for different services—like IRCTC Rail Connect for reserved tickets, UTS on Mobile for general and platform tickets, NTES to know the live running status of trains and platform numbers, Rail Madad for complaints and IRCTC Food on Track to order hot food in the train. The RailOne app has integrated all these disparate services into a single single-window digital platform. It has an integrated wallet and UPI payment system, allowing reserved, unreserved, platform and now shared season tickets to be booked in a matter of seconds. With this single app, phone storage is also saved and the hassle of logging in to different portals again and again is completely eliminated. How to create season tickets for others from RailOne app? Know the step-by-step online process If you want to make a season ticket from the RailOne app for your family member or acquaintance, the process is extremely simple and user-friendly: App Install and Login: First of all, download the official RailOne app from Google Play Store or Apple App Store and login or sign-up with your 10-digit mobile number. Selecting the Season Ticket Menu: Go to the main dashboard of the app and tap on the 'Season Ticket' option within the 'Unreserved Ticketing' section. Select 'Book for Others': You will get two options on the screen—'Issue Ticket for Self' and 'Issue Ticket for Others'. To make passes for others, click on 'Issue Ticket for Others'. Enter co-passenger details: Fill in the full name, correct age (minimum 5 years), gender and identity card number of the person for whom the ticket is being made. Along with this, upload a clear and straight passport size photograph of that passenger. Selection of Stations and Duration: Select the source and destination station of the journey (the distance should be within 150 km). After this select the pass period – Monthly, Quarterly, Half yearly or Annually. Digital Payment and Ticket Download: The total amount of concessional fare will appear on the screen. Use UPI, Debit/Credit Card, Net Banking or Railway Wallet for payment. As soon as the payment is completed, a digital season ticket with photo and barcode/QR code will appear on the screen. Download it immediately as PDF and share it on the passenger's WhatsApp or email. Freedom from long queues for daily commuters and students: This progressive decision of Railways is going to prove to be a boon for lakhs of regular passengers of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and West Bengal, a big benefit for daily passengers across the country. Especially on routes like Lucknow, Kanpur, Unnao, Barabanki, Ghaziabad, Khurja, Aligarh and Panipat, thousands of students leave for coaching and colleges every morning, while lakhs of employees head to offices. The fierce fighting at ticket counters on the first dates of the month, wastage of time and many times missing the train will now become history. This digital move by Railways will not only promote paperless ticketing and protect the environment, but will also significantly reduce the pressure of crowd at the ticket windows in the station premises. This change, which saves both time and money for daily commuters, is proving to be a very important milestone in the journey of digital railways.
