1. A Cellular Fare Collection System for Suburban Railways in India Pratik Kotkar, Kumar Mayank, Suyog Deshpande Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. WISARD 2008, A workshop in COMSWARE 2008

2. Abstract In metropolitan India the major form of transport for commuters daily are the local trains, leading to long queues for the ticket and also a large percentage of ticketless traveling. Here we develop the working of a system by using mobile phone technology, which has inveterated urban India, as the means of a fare collection system for suburban train travel in India. We also describe a scheme to avoid the large percentage of ticketless traveling as well as allow commuters to book tickets while traveling for their onward journey keeping all the changes easily integrable into the currently established ticketing systems.

3. Current Ticket Systems Ticketing system for trains in India –Paper tickets –Magnetic strip based –Web and mobile ticketing Ticketing systems in other parts of the world –RFID tags –Magnetic strip based

4. Shortcomings of the current system Long queues for ticket issuing Lack of onboard booking Lack of computer infrastructure & high end mobiles Aversion from credit card usage Large paper consumption

5. Proposed system

6. Developed system Ticket Issuing

7. Proposed system Ticket Checking –Through a device given to ticket checkers –IVRS based Fare Collection Methods –Card based –Billed by the network Security Measures –Place stamp using GPS system –Time stamp given by server

8. Research Position Current –Server side system based on an Asterisk server which can send and receive SMS. –A MySQL based database that stores all details corresponding to each ticket. Future –IVRS –System refinement for simplified interaction –Fare collection cards

9. References “Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)”,Press Release no. 89,12 Sept. 2006. “British Railway Ends Edmondson”,Railway Magazine, Vol. 134, March1988, Page 148. Bombay Rail History Group, [online], http://www.brhg.4t.com. J. Meggelen, J. Smith, and L. Madsen, Asterisk - the Future of Telephony,OReilly Media, 2005. IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation, [online], http://irctc.co.in. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, [online], http://www.mbta.com. Hindu Newspaper Online Edition, [online]