Rail Card to replace season tickets on suburban trains

New Delhi, Aug 28 (PTI) Suburban train passengers maysoon get a Rail Card in place of monthly season tickets whichthey can also use for some retail therapy. The public sector transporter is in talks with 31 banksto firm up the co-branding proposal, a senior Railway Ministryofficial said. An estimated 1.1 crore passengers use local trains dailyacross the country. According to the plan, there will be three types of RailCards – gold, silver and platinum. While the silver card will be for monthly pass holders,gold cards will be issued to passengers opting for six-monthduration pass. Platinum card is meant for year-long passholders. He said discussions are on with 31 banks including SBI,ICICI, HDFC and PNB for the co-branding exercise. "Banks haveshown keen interest in the Rail Card project and accordinglyagreements will be signed." The Rail Card will be launched in Mumbai as a pilotproject before the facility is extended to other places. Nearly 7.5 million commuters use suburban train servicein Mumbai every day and is called the city’s lifeline.Suburban train service is a key mode of transport in Kolkataand Chennai as well. Indian Railway has already launched a mobile applicationfor paperless unreserved tickets for suburban system. Offering Rail Card replacing monthly pass is a stepfurther towards providing more facilities to passengers, hesaid. PTI ARU SKSRY