Smart City Series - Metro Railways

All Smart City Metro railways should be made cashless. We will now look at one scenario ( Metro Railways ) and see how this smart card makes your travel experience very  comfortable. There will be no cash counters or ticket counters in Metro Rail in Smart Cities. You take this Universal Smart Card and get inside a station. Only when you swipe the card, you will be allowed inside the station. This Universal Citizen Identification Smart Card should be loaded with certain amount of money at any time you enter a station. This amount should me maximum amount required for First class travel from one end to other end of the station. This should be the highest amount present day ticket counters charge for any travel in Metro trains. Say from Beach to Tambaram. First class say 100 rupees. Tambaram to Chengalpattu. Say 80 rupees. Take maximum amount 100 rupees. If there is confusion in this system, Railways can bring about a standard rate like 250 or 100 rupees in all metros, considering all the above rates. So, when you swipe the card to enter a station, it checks whether you have balance in your Universal Citizen Identification Smart Card in Railway transport wallet. It allows you inside the station if you have balance or you can’t enter the station. There are two reasons why you want to enter a station. Either to help passenger to board the train or you travel by yourself. If it is former case you need platform ticket. Before going to tell how your ticket is got, I want to tell that this method avoids terrorist activities in Railways,  because you need this Universal Citizen Identification Smart Card to enter a station. Even if it is stolen from somebody, it will have Picture of the person in the card. Police can easily catch the culprit if it is stolen, because the one who lost the card, can’t do anything without the stolen card, so it will be reported immediately. If it is not stolen, it gives direct evidence of link with the terrorist. Now, how to get a ticket. Simply board the train you want to travel. Every time, when the train is in midway between two stations, it will read the RFID tag. It will record where you have boarded and will check where you got down. Like I want to travel from tambaram to chromepet. When it is midway between tambarm and sanatorium, it will record that you have boarded on tambaram. It then checks in between, sanatorium and chromepet. You are present, it will wait. It then checks in between chromepet and next station, you are not there. Train ticket from Tambaram to chromepet billed from your Metro train wallet. And immediately you will receive a message of your bill. Now I will tell about the huge advantage of this system. You can get up and get down anywhere, without planning in advance. Like you boarded the train from Tambaram in general compartment, you found it crowded. So you get down on next station sanatorium, go to first class. Now the bill is normal between tambaram and sanatorium and first class between sanatorium and chromepet. All using no tickets. Very very flexible. You have bought season ticket or you got pass, or whatever, all will be fed in Metro train transport system. You simply need to board wherever you wish. You stand in platform and you did not board a train before leaving the station, for every hour you spent on platform, platform ticket will be deducted from your account. Also, let’s say, a person got into the railway station, with the smart card and has enough balance in it and before boarding the train, he gives away the smart card to some other person and boards the train. Before exiting the station, he has to swipe the smart card, or you can’t get out of the station. Another scenario, a person (A) enters one station with a card and gives to another person(B) and Person A boards the train and person B leaves the station after billing for platform ticket. When person A reaches his destination , there is another person C, who has 2 Smart cards and gets inside a station and gives person A the extra card, he had and exits with both cards. To avoid this scenario, The exit of a card will only be accepted, if the card entered in any station. Next you boarded the train, it goes from tambaram to beach, your minimum balance is exhausted. And instead of coming out of the station, you stay there and again board a train from beach to tambaram. Now the amount is negative. In that case, you have to pay a fine of 500 rupees, or else you will never be able to board a train again. Because we have your Smart Card number. This way of travel will be negligible as people won’t come from a place and go back to the same place. Another scenario, 5 Persons enter Tambaram Station with the smart card. 4 boards the train without Smart card and gives it to the fifth person. He travels from Tambaram to Beach in bus and enters beach station and gives these 4 persons 4 cards and all three exit from beach. To overcome this scenario, If a person enters station A and leaves at station B, there should be a train ticket link between these two stations or you can't exit. If you board train from Beach to Tambaram and another train from Tambaram to chengalpet, there will be link between travel link between Beach and Chengalpet. In this case, you can exit. Here comes another scenario, Person A and B board a train from Beach to Tambaram. Person B gets down at Guindy and keeps Person A's Smart Card with him. Person A travels to Tambaram without smart card and returns to Guindy and both Person A & B leaves station Guindy. As there is a link for person A&B between Beach and Guindy. The problem with this scenario is you can't get out of station at Tambaram without smart Card. And even if you do it simply for fun boarding trains without smart cards. your platform ticket will keep on increasing. Platform ticket for station at Gindy will be exponentially increase. For first hour, it will be 5 rupees. Second hour 15 rupees. third hour 25 rupees. In this case it is for two person's platform ticket, because he has to be inside the Station and you can't go out carrying other person's Smart Card. You will end up paying more money than your ticket cost. Also, at exit points and entry points, if you carry some other's Smart Card on to the station and swipe with your card, it will be detected using RFID or NFC sensor that you have more than one card and proper explanation should be given to Railway Police in case you do it and all Railway Transactions will examined by Police before letting you go. If found to do malpractice, you will be fined 500 rupees. Every time you swipe the smart card in Railway station, it will send a message to your cell phone telling about your balance in Metro Train wallet. Also you can check it wherever you want in ATMs.