Surat: Thousands of daily commuters travelling between Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Vapi and Mumbai in local and MEMU trains will now have to transfer their season passes to the new Rail One mobile application. The railway administration has officially discontinued the UTS app services from March 1 and replaced them with the new Rail One app. Passengers who are still relying on the old app are facing penalties during ticket checking.

A recent incident in the Mumbai division has highlighted the issue. A woman passenger, Sarita Dhuri, had a valid season pass in the UTS app, but during ticket checking the app failed to open, following which the TTE treated her as travelling without a ticket and fined her ₹330. Although she managed to open the app a few minutes later and showed the valid pass, the fine was not refunded due to strict railway rules.

A ticket checker of Western Railway, on condition of anonymity, said,
“We have to check tickets of hundreds of passengers. It is not possible to wait for one person until the app opens. If the ticket is not shown on the spot, we have to issue the penalty receipt.”

Railway authorities have retired the UTS app to make digital ticketing more secure and faster. Officials have appealed to passengers whose season passes in the UTS app are still valid to immediately transfer them to the Rail One app. Once a penalty receipt is issued, no refund is given under any circumstances, and passengers have been advised to take this seriously.

Step-by-step process to transfer season pass to Rail One app

• Download the Rail One app from the Play Store.

• Log in using your registered mobile number.

• Go to the menu and click on Season Pass Transfer.

• Enter the season pass number or details from the old UTS app.

• After completing the process, the pass will appear in the new app.

Railway authorities have urged daily commuters, especially the working class travelling regularly on suburban routes, to complete the transfer at the earliest to avoid penalties. DeshGujarat