Why Smart Card is better than UTS ?

If you are a Mumbaikar then you must be travelling in train for some or the other purpose. For regular traveller, Season ticket is the solution but what about those who do not travel on a regular basis, I am one of them. Every time I had to stand in long queue before starting any journey.


Thanks to Indian Railways for bringing UTS which helped me a lot. When I came to know about UTS, I was always using this app for booking local tickets because of its paper ticket feature. It was quite simple- "Just book ticket from smartphone and take printout from ATVM."

I was happy with this UTS initiative by Indian Railways but after few months, paperless ticket was brought in this app. I thought it will more efficient to have ticket in smartphone itself, isn't it ? Just think.... when TC comes to check your ticket, you just have to take out your smartphone for showing ticket. This was something interesting about paperless ticket.

But whenever I tried to book paperless ticket till today, there was always some or the other error. This was the reason I moved to Smart Card. I had very bad experience with UTS paperless ticket. I hope UTS will improve some day but now I prefer Smart Card. Today I will tell you why Smart Card is better than UTS ?...... First let me tell you some facts about Smart Card.

Smart Card

• Smart Card is not only for booking just normal ticket, but it is also used for Single/Return journey, Platform ticket & renewal of Season ticket for suburban section of Western and Central Railway.
• It is just like a Debit Card which can used at any time for buying ticket.
• You can purchase Smart Card in Rs. 100 from any railway counter. For doing this even you don't have to stand in queue, we can directly go to the counter. We will also get Rs. 52 initial balance which is called as "Travel Value".

Benefits of Smart Card over UTS

The following benefits I found while using Smart Card :-

• No identity proof is required when you buy Smart Card, whereas in UTS you need to do signup process and at least one identity proof is required.
• Smartphone is not required for becoming Smart, you just need Smart Card for taking ticket. On the other hand for using UTS app, Smartphone with GPS feature is compulsory.
• Your Smart Card can be used by anyone whereas UTS is restricted for individual person itself. This means you can share your Smart Card with anyone.
• When you recharge your Smart Card, additional 5% is added into Smart Card balance whereas on UTS recharge you won't get any additional amount. For example: On recharge of Rs. 100, you will get Rs. 105 in your Smart Card balance while in UTS you will get only Rs. 100.

Conclusion:-

Standing in a queue for long time is not a better option, Be Smart and use Smart Card.