Passenger Reservation System (PRS)

Consider the scope of the operation. Indian Railways is the world's second-largest railway, with 6,853 stations, 63,028 kilometers of track, 37,840 passenger coaches and 222,147 freight cars. Annually it carries some 4.83 billion passengers and 492 million tons of freight.

Of the 11 million passengers who climb aboard one of 8,520 trains each day, about 550,000 have reserved accommodations. Their journeys can start in any part of India and end in any other part, with travel times as long as 48 hours and distances up to several thousand kilometers. The challenge is to provide a reservation system that can support such a huge scale of operations - regardless of whether it's measured by kilometers, passenger numbers, routing complexity, or simply the sheer scale of India.

PRS started in 1985 as a pilot project in New Delhi. The avowed objective was to provide reserved accommodation on any train from any counter preparation of train charts and accountal of the money collected. When initial pilot project was implemented at Delhi, the software (referred to as version I) had a number of limitations. These were mainly removed in next version i.e. version II implemented in in 1987.With the addition of new locations and many redefinitions needed the new version III evolved in 1990.Even the version III of the earlier software called Impress fell far short of the growing expectations of he travelling public and the need was felt to have a software which has the capabilities of providing the Networking of the five independent PRS nodes namely Secundrabad, Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai and Chennai

On 18th April 1999, with the networking of Chennai PRS, all the five PRS namely Secunderabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai were finally networked together.

Now anywhere to anywhere reserved ticketing became a possibility on any PRS booking terminal. In order to facilitate the availability, PNR status and other journey planning information to the common public various interfaces like the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) on the telephone, Touch Screens at selective locations, RAPID, DISPLAY, Passenger Operated Enquiry Terminals (POET) and Daily Press Availability Reports through newspapers have been provided.

UNRESERVED TICKETING SYSTEM (UTS)

Indian Railway is constantly looking for new ideas to simplify and streamline procedures for the convenience of passengers. In this endeavor they have introduced several path breaking technologies on the Railway system over the years. These technical innovations have included the computerisation of reserved passenger tickets amongst several other facilities for passengers. As we introduce new facilities on the railway system, we are tempted to take a peek into the past. The legacy of the 150 years of railways in India is not only filled by the memories of the steam run trains puffing over the countryside, it is also of cardboard tickets, one for the fare and the other for reservation and of course, the memories of sending telegrams for return reservation to the station master from where one was to begin the return journey. With the introduction of the computerisation of reserved tickets, these memories have been relegated to the past. It is now considered to be a basic minimum requirement to acquire confirmed reservation for traveling, at one's convenience and proceed on a journey carrying a confirmed ticket for the return journey. This has been achieved only in the last quarter of the last century.

To take this facility to its logical conclusion, Railway is now introducing a system for unreserved tickets. Sanctioned as a pilot project by the Ministry of Railway, this project is planned to be implemented in two phases. In the first phase, 10 stations of Delhi area are provided with booking terminals. These stations are : New Delhi, Delhi Jn., Hazrat Nizammudin, Delhi-Shahdra, Ghaziabad, Shakurbasti, Delhi Kishanganj, Sarojini Nagar, Shivaji Bridge & Tilak Bridge. The Hon'ble Minister for Railways, Shri Nitish Kumar has inaugurated the terminals at New Delhi Stations on 15th August, 2002. This will enable passengers to purchase an unreserved ticket from anyone of these counters 30 days in advance of undertaking the journey from any station to any destination. Thus, passengers will have the freedom to purchase tickets at their convenience. Since the passengers will not be time bound to purchase tickets, there will be considerable reduction of congestion at ticket booking windows for unreserved tickets. In the second phase 13 other stations of Delhi area are provided with booking terminals on 2nd October, 2002. The stations are:- Delhi Sadar Bazar, Dayabasti, Subzi Mandi, Delhi Azadpur, Okhla, Sewa Nagar, New Azadpur, Badli, Vivek Vihar, Sahibabad, Vivekanandpuri, New Gaziabad and Mangolpuri.

In addition to this facility, unreserved tickets will continue to be available through the manual system and the the Self Printing Ticketing Machines, wherever such facilities are available. With the introduction of this system, the Railways will also benefit in several ways. These are :

• Keeping pace with the latest technology
• Encouraging passengers to purchase their tickets in advance
• To have online accountal of tickets sales.
• To have a rational analysis of the demand of passengers on various routes in advance, so as to augment trains as per requirement.

Advantages of Unreserved Ticketing System

• Reduced queue length
• Enable advance planning of unreserved journey also
• Reduced crowds at booking offices and stations, making ticket purchase more comfortable
• Allow Indian Railways to plan extra trains and coaches as per trend of sales registered in the system.
• Unreserved itinerary planning possible, tickets available from any station to any station.