Borivali\, Thane stations high earners through UTS app

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Borivali, Thane stations high earners through UTS app

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Western Railway station generates ₹70.24 lakh from 53,775 tickets booked at Borivali in October

Borivali and Thane stations top the list in the city in terms of revenue generated and number of tickets booked through the UTS mobile app, respectively. Western Railway (WR) generated ₹70.24 lakh as revenue from 53,775 tickets booked through the app at Borivali in October. In the same month, 92,406 tickets worth ₹54.97 lakh were booked at Thane.

While Borivali accounted for the highest revenue from the app, more tickets were booked at Andheri. Similarly, Virar ranks fifth in the number of tickets sold, but accounted for the second-highest revenue earned for WR. This was because of the higher fare, especially for first class tickets, from Borivali and Virar to Churchgate as compared to the Andheri-Churchgate, senior divisional commercial manager (Mumbai), WR, Aarti Parihar, said.

On the Central line, Thane earned the highest revenue and its ticket sales accounted for nearly 10% of all tickets booked from the app across the divisions of Central Railway (CR). Kalyan generated ₹10 lakh less than Thane, with only around 36,000 tickets.

“We have dedicated a team of four staff members for the promotion of the app. They generally target terminating stations such as Borivali, Andheri, Churchgate and Virar during the start of the month so as to attract season ticket holders,” Ms. Parihar said. Season ticket holders make up nearly 69% of the commuters on WR. “While growth in season ticket holders has been more or less constant, we have also seen increasing number of commuters use the app for single journey tickets,” she said.

The app was started in 2014 in select CR stations on a pilot basis and then expanded to suburban railway networks across the country. Railway officials said the introduction of the QR code at Mumbai suburban stations helped in the adoption of the app. “Since GPS would give an approximation, often passengers were unable to book tickets when they were too close to the station. With each station getting a unique QR code, this has been resolved,” a senior railway official said.

Railway stations across the country have been geo-fenced, which is why the app does not allow passengers to book tickets if they are in a train or waiting for one on a platform. This feature was added to curb potential ticketless travel.