Vijayawada: APSRTC introduces multi-city ticket booking facility

Vijayawada : The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport has intro-duced passenger friendly service, namely, multi-city ticket book-ing facility which will be very useful to the long distance travel-lers.

This is similar to the multi-city ticketing provision available in air travel. The RTC bus passengers can travel in two buses by pur-chasing one ticket from one destination to another destination with layover facility at one bus station.

Passengers travelling from Srikakulam to Anantapur can travel in two buses with layover at one bus station. The passengers can get break journey at Vijayawada and can board another RTC bus and can reach the destination. For example, if a passenger wants to travel from Madanapalle to Bhadrachalam, there is no direct bus facility now. However, a passenger now can choose and re-serve his journey on services which run from Madanapalle to Vi-jayawada and from Vijayawada to Bhadrachalam with the imple-mentation of multi-city ticket booking facility.

Similarly, a passenger intending to travel from Tanuku to Benga-luru can reserve on 2 services, namely, Tanuku to Tirupati and Tirupati to Bengaluru. The minimum layover period at the changeover place is 2 hrs and the maximum is 22 hrs. In the 1st phase, the APSRTC has introduced the multi-city bus ticketing system on 137 routes which will be increased in a phased manner, depending on request from the people. The facili-ty is available from all cities, district headquarters and even small towns like Bapatla, Tanuku, Paderu, Nuzvid, Machilpatnam, Kup-pam, Punganuru, Prodduturu, Pulivendula etc.

This multi-city/multi-town ticketing system will be of great use to those passengers who need to break their journey at the change-over point in order to complete their business or personal work and still reach their destination on the same day or next day.

Further, a passenger is permitted to choose different bus services of his choice i.e., he can travel from Tanuku to Tirupati in Super Luxury and from Tirupati to Bengaluru in Indra bus. One of the key advantages of the multi-leg bus ticketing system is that it offers passengers the convenience of a single payment and booking process, eliminating the need for multiple transac-tions, said the APSRTC in a press release on Thursday.

Seat Reservation charges are collected for one service only (and not for 2 services) and all existing concessions are extended un-der this scheme. Additionally, the system is designed to offer passengers to select the choicest service type and time.

The system is user-friendly, and passengers can book their tickets through a UTS mobile app or online platform (www.apsrtconline.in).

The multi-leg bus ticketing system is built on advanced technolo-gy that seamlessly connects multiple buses and major connecting bus stations, enabling the bus passengers to book their entire journey in one go. This means that the passengers can now easily plan their journeys and purchase tickets for multiple legs of the trip, without worrying about multiple bookings and transfers. This facility is available only on services covered with Online Passenger Reservation System.

The list of 137 services in the first phase is available on apsrtconline.in. The APSRTC has requested the passengers to avail the facility.