Rail Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw instructed officials during a review meeting at Rail Bhawan to ensure that passengers do not face difficulties during the shifting of trains to the upgraded system of the 40-year-old reservation system. The meeting was also attended by Minister of State for Railways V.
Somanna and Ravneet Singh Bittu. This system, which started in 1986, has undergone several minor changes over the past 40 years, but now it has been fundamentally transformed. The capacity has been expanded using state-of-the-art technology.
The rail reservation system has seen many significant milestones. In 2002, Indian Railways began using the internet for ticketing. Today, this system is so popular that most of the country's population does not approach ticket counters.
Currently, a large portion (88%) of ticketing demand in the country is met through online means. The Indian Railways mobile app, RailOne, is rapidly gaining popularity among passengers. Launched in July last year, the app has been downloaded 35 million times across the country in less than a year.
One of the main reasons for the app's popularity is that it provides all railway-related information to the common man and addresses their complaints related to ticketing and other services. When booking a ticket, the RailOne app informs users whether their waiting ticket is likely to be confirmed. The app now also provides accurate predictions of ticket confirmation probabilities through AI, a feature that has been implemented since the beginning of this year and is well-received by users.
The accuracy of predicting the confirmation of waiting tickets on the RailOne app has increased from 53% to 94%. The app includes several integrated and modern features that encompass all other railway services, such as booking, cancellation, and refunds for reserved, unreserved, and platform tickets. Additionally, it provides the latest status of your current ticket's waiting status, train arrival and departure times, current train status, platform information, and your coach's position.
Passengers can also order food through the RailOne app during their journey, which allows their favorite meals to be delivered to their seats. Equipped with comfortable and service-oriented features, the RailOne app is rapidly becoming popular. Daily, 929,000 tickets are booked through this app, including 720,000 unreserved tickets and 209,000 reserved tickets, with unreserved tickets also including platform tickets.
The RailOne app is well-liked on both Android and iOS, with 31.6 million downloads from Google Play Store and 3.3 million downloads on Apple phones. Indian Railways serves as a lifeline for passengers, providing a subsidy of ₹60,239 crores on passenger tickets in 2024-25, which equates to an average discount of 43% for each person traveling by train. In other words, if the cost of providing the service is ₹100, the ticket price is only ₹57.
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