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SMS (Short Message Service) Initiated EMU/Unreserved Railway Booking Solution

Abstract
Everyday, more than 20 million people use the services of the Indian Railways.
Of this huge number, only about 5%, or roughly about 1 million people travel with properly reserved seats.
The remaining 19 million ( 95 % ) either travel by commuter trains popularly known as EMU / Local Trains OR by mail / passenger trains in the unreserved compartments.
While regular commuters use monthly passes, there is a huge percentage of unreserved passengers who have to go through the daily hassles and drudgery of buying tickets at the reservation counter.
All such users, as also the monthly pass users have to wait in long queues at those counters and witness the inefficient and slow rate of activities carried out by the reservation clerks.
This is sheer drudgery for both, those standing in the queues, and the reservation clerks.
Another problem that severely troubles INDIAN RAILWAYS is that a large percentage of people crowd the railway stations, with most of them not even paying for the services !
Very few care to buy Platform Tickets !
A major deterrent for the Indian populace to buying Platform Tickets is that they have to wait in long queues just for a Rs.3 ticket !
In some other instances, people have to face rude behavior, refusal to pay change etc. from the reservation clerks.
To avoid such frustrating incidents, people just choose not to but Platform Tickets !

Target Problem(s) Attempted To Be Solved


A) Unreserved Train Ticketing
Unreserved Quota - Mail Trains
Unreserved Quota - Passenger Trains
B) EMU Ticketing
C) Platform Ticketing

The proposed system attempts to reduce drastically, if not eliminate, the drudgery described in the Abstract section.
EMU / Mail / Passenger train bookings are simple and require minimum inputs while reservation.
Platform Tickets require no input at all other than the number of Tickets required !
Hence, this can be automated using simple, cheap and easy-to-use telecom solutions such as the Short-Message-Service (SMS).
An automated intervention-free system will drastically reduce the drudgery in the lives of daily passengers / commuters / platform users.

PROPOSAL / IDEA IN SHORT


The target problems described in the preceding sections can be solved to a great extent by allowing the passenger to book his ticket by sending a short SMS to a centralized number allocated to the INDIAN
RAILWAYS as against tolerating the drudgery of waiting in queues for the reservation clerks to book tickets.
The reservation clerks can instead be put to more productive & less mundane tasks of the INDIAN RAILWAYS such as Enquiry offices, Ticket Checkers & Station Assistants.
This solution will work in conjunction with the Internet Booking solution by IRCTC, but cannot replace it since Booking Reserved tickets is cumbersome as it involves entering Full Passenger Details such as
Name, DOB, Berth preference etc. which cant be accomplished by merely an SMS message.
Hence, the title and the entire document appropriately claim the proposal as being VALID only for UNRESERVED Booking - Local EMUs / MAIL / PASSENGER trains.

Proposal By :

Arindam Bandyopadhyay

(arindam.nsit@gmail.com)

+919811894532

Residence Address : I-1639, First Floor, Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi - 110019, INDIA.

Solution / Technology
ATTACHMENTS
Network Topology Diagram (PNG Image).
Logic FlowChart (PNG Image).
These contain the details of the solution in graphical / pictorial format which will present the idea in clearer terms.
Additionally, the diagram contains the requisite SMS Formats with parameter details (Onward & Return both) acceptable by a centralized number allocated to the INDIAN RAILWAYS.
The textual description follows below.
DESCRIPTION OF PROTOCOL
As seen in the block diagram & Flowchart, the passenger will use his mobile phone to send an SMS to a centralized number.
The telecom service provider will then forward the booking request to the INDIAN RAILWAYS secure site for booking the ticket.
The applications server installed at the INDIAN RAILWAYS regional/zonal booking center will analyze the SMS input parameters and validate them as described below in VALIDATIONS section.
A) POSITIVE WORK FLOW
In case all validations PASS, the applications server will signal the passengers telecom service provider to deduct Total Ticket Charges + SMS Charges.
The telecom service provider will deduct the amount and signal SUCCESS back to INDIAN Railways Applications Server along with a Generated Booking ID.
The INDIAN Railways Applications Server will then apply its ticketing logic and make necessary entries in the INDIAN RAILWAYS centralized database, as is the case with the current booking system followed by reservation clerks.
The ticket booking data will be saved, a PNR Number generated, and the total ticket amount will be sent back to the passengers mobile phone.

B) NEGATIVE WORK FLOW


In case validations of the Input SMS Parameters FAIL, The INDIAN Railways Applications Server will send back an Booking DECLINED SMS to the passengers mobile phone along with the erring parameter(s).
No charge will be deducted [Open to discussion].
The passenger can then once again send another SMS with the Parameters corrected.

VALIDATIONS [ TO BE PERFORMED BY INDIAN RAILWAYS APPLICATIONS SERVER ]


1) It will validate the requested number of tickets (as a number within reasonable limits such that a number b/w 1 to MAX_NUMBER_OF_TICKETS (say, 50) will be acceptable).
This applies to both :
Number Of Adults (Full Ticket) &
Number Of Children (Half Ticket)
Any number supplied more than MAX_NUMBER_OF_TICKETS / less than 1 / having invalid characters other than numeric will default to ERROR CASE as described in RED Blocks in the attached FlowChart Diagram.
2) Input source station name will be matched as a regular expression and in case the search result returns any number of results other than 1 station name, it will default to ERROR CASE.
Other than 1 station name means either :
A) ZERO Results - Input expression doesnt match with those in the list of stations / junctions / halts etc in the centralized database of INDIAN RAILWAYS.
B) TWO OR MORE Results - Input expression is too ambiguous - meaning - it returned two or more results.
3) Input destination station name will also be validated and matched in a similar manner as the source station name as described in (2) above.
4) In case of Platform Ticket, the character P needs to be present in the message to indicate platform ticket.
Also, The presence of Number Of Tickets as input will be validated.
5) In case of Return Ticket, the character R needs to be present to indicate the same.

Proposal By :

Arindam Bandyopadhyay

(arindam.nsit@gmail.com)

+919811894532

Residence Address : I-1639, First Floor, Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi - 110019, INDIA.

Unreserved Train Ticketing


Forward SMS ( Booking )

[ 6 Booking Inputs / Parameters Required In SMS ]

T [L/P/M]

Train Type

NN(A)

Number Of Tickets ( Adult )

NN(C)

Number Of Tickets ( Child )

SSSSSS

Source Station

DDDDDD

Destination Station

If Return Ticket Required (Not To Be entered for Single Way Ticket)

Return SMS

( Confirmation )

[Acceptable Values :

L = Local Train / EMU,

PNR Number

DD/MM/YYYY

Ticket Validity Date

HH:MM:SS

Ticket Booking Time

T [L/P/M]

Train Type [ L / P / M ]

SSSSSS

Source Station

DDDDDD

Destination Station

NN(A)

No. Of Adults

NN(C)

No. Of Children

Rs.AAA

Fare Per Adult

Rs.CCC

Fare Per Child

Rs.NNN

Total Ticket Amount (Rs.)

Return Ticket (Blank if Single Way Ticket)

Arindam Bandyopadhyay

P = Passenger]

[ 12 Booking Confirmation Parameters Returned In SMS ]

XXX-YYYZZZZ

Proposal By :

M = Mail,

(arindam.nsit@gmail.com)

+919811894532

Residence Address : I-1639, First Floor, Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi - 110019, INDIA.

Platform Ticketing
Forward SMS ( Booking )

[ 2 Booking Inputs / Parameters Required In SMS ]

NN

Number Of Platform Tickets Required

P Indicates Platform Ticket

Return SMS

( Confirmation )

[ 7 Booking Confirmation Parameters Returned In SMS ]

XXXXXXXXXXX

Booking ID / Serial Number

DD/MM/YYYY

Ticket Validity Date

HH:MM:SS

Ticket Booking Time

SSSSSS

Source Station [ District / Town / City If Station Not Determinable ]

NN

No. Of Platform Tickets Required

Rs.AAA

Fare Per Ticket

Rs.NNN

Total Ticket Amount (Rs.)

___

Proposal By :

Arindam Bandyopadhyay

(arindam.nsit@gmail.com)

+919811894532

Residence Address : I-1639, First Floor, Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi - 110019, INDIA.

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