Long distance commuters are now switching over to online ticket booking rather than sweating it out in serpentine queues at Thane station's reservation counter.
Statistics from the Railways revealed a decline in the number of commuters coming to the reservation counter to book their outstation tickets manually. However, revenue through outstation tickets has shown an increase.
The Railway figures for 2012-13 fiscal show that 8,90,374 tickets were booked at the Thane reservation counter while the following fiscal saw a dip with only 7,90,908 tickets booked. Interestingly, the revenue showed a jump of around INR 2.15 crore.
While INR 40.83 crore was earned from sale of long distance tickets in 2012-13 fiscal, the same shot up by 5.2% to touch INR 42.99 crore in 2013-14.
A Travel agent said, "The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a popular booking site for railway tickets followed by several other travel sites that are a hit with the young travellers. Online transactions save a lot of time and effort though one needs to pay service charges.”
A railway official at Thane says commuters staying far off prefer to book online rather than spending money to come and book tickets at station or at Vartak Nagar.
Commuters said that the reservation counter at the station doesn't have adequate amenities.
"The space is often crowded. Though there is a token system, one has to wait for a considerable amount of time to purchase tickets," said Sonali Pathak, a resident of Kalwa.
Sunil Dubey, a commuter from Ghodbunder Road said that he used to spend Rs 150 only to travel to the station and spend over two hours to get tickets. "This year I opted for online booking for my summer travel. The transaction was smooth and I didn't have to wait in serpentine queues to get my ticket. No hassle of tendering change either," said the commuter.