New Delhi: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday (May 7) held a review meeting at Rail Bhawan with officials and issued directions to ensure that passengers do not face any inconvenience during the transition of trains from the 40-year-old reservation system to the upgraded system, an official release from the Ministry of Railways read.
Union Ministers of State for Railways, V Somanna and Ravneet Singh Bittu, were also present in the meeting.
Started in 1986, this system has undergone several minor changes over the past 40 years. However, now it has been completely overhauled, and its capacity has been significantly expanded using state-of-the-art technology, the release stated.
The railway reservation system has witnessed several key milestones. In 2002, Indian Railways introduced internet-based ticketing. Today, the system has become so popular that most people no longer approach ticket counters. Currently, nearly 88% of total ticketing demand in the country is fulfilled through online channels.
The RailOne mobile app is rapidly gaining popularity among passengers. It was launched in July last year. In less than a year, it has recorded over 3.5 crore downloads across the country.
One of the biggest reasons for its popularity is that the app not only provides all railway-related information to the common man but also resolves complaints related to ticketing and other services, a release further stated.
When you book a ticket today, the RailOne app informs you whether a waitlisted ticket is likely to be confirmed or not. The app now also provides AI-based predictions of confirmation probability. This feature was introduced earlier this year and has been widely appreciated by users. The accuracy of waitlist confirmation prediction has increased from 53% earlier to 94% now.
The RailOne app offers several integrated and modern features, covering almost all railway services such as booking, cancellation, and refunds for reserved, unreserved, and platform tickets.
As per a release, it also provides real-time updates on ticket waiting status, train schedules, live train running status, platform information, coach position, and services like Rail Madad for passenger assistance. During travel, passengers can also order food through the app, which ensures delivery directly to their seats. Equipped with convenient and service-oriented features, the RailOne app is growing rapidly in popularity.
Every day, 9.29 lakh tickets are booked through this app across the country, including 7.2 lakh unreserved tickets and 2.09 lakh reserved tickets. Unreserved tickets also include platform tickets. The RailOne app is widely appreciated on both Android and iOS platforms. It has been downloaded 3.16 crore times from the Google Play Store and 33.17 lakh times on Apple devices.
For passengers in the country, Indian Railways is a lifeline. In 2024-25, Indian Railways provided a subsidy of Rs 60,239 crore on passenger tickets. This is equivalent to an average discount of 43% for every railway passenger. In other words, if the cost of providing the service is Rs 100, the ticket price is only Rs 57.
(ANI)
