No cash in your wallet and you desperately need a local train ticket? You can soon whip out your debit or credit card and swipe it at the nearest Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVM). The IT arm of the Indian Railways has moved one step closer to giving commuters their first credit/debit card-enabled ticket machines. The tests and trials of the first such machine have just been completed.

mid-day had reported last month (November 6) that the Centre for Railway Information Systems, the IT arm of the Indian Railways, had, through the Central Railway, forwarded a proposal to the railway board to modify the existing lot of ATVMs to enable the change. Once the changes are made, it will be applicable for all railways across the country where ATVMs are used.