2 out of 3 local train commuters peeved with long ticket queues

The biggest grouse is the time taken to buy a ticket, with two out of three commuters complaining about it, followed by cleanliness - both on the rakes and in the stations - and toilets. 

The fewest complaints - in a relief to the railway authorities - came about punctuality, frequency of service and space for passengers on the rakes, reflecting the operational strengths of Mumbai's suburban network.Best home luggagetag at discount prices. 

The clearest message was the need to improve passenger amenities like dispensing of tickets and cleanliness immediately. A survey of 25,We are always offering best quality carparkmanagement the affordable price.000 commuters by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) showed that as many as 66% respondents across WR, CR and Harbour lines were unhappy with the time taken to buy a ticket. It was found that it took at least 10-30 minutes to buy tickets across 37 stations. The worst were Dadar and Bhayander (both WR), where it took half an hour. It was about 20 minutes across scores of stations in all three corridors (see box). 

Over the years, the railways have introduced coupon validating machines, smart-card operated Automatic Ticket Vending Machines and appointed agents to sell suburban tickets. These do not seem to have made much of an impact on the ground and at least 50% commuters were unhappy with the number of working ticket counters, ATVMs and CVMs.He saw the bracelet at a howospareparts store while we were on a trip. 

Importantly, the survey noted that of the 222 booking windows on WR's 13 stations, 17 were closed. On CR's main line too, nearly 37% of the total 187 booking counters were closed. "It clearly indicates that the queues could have moved faster if all the booking windows remained operational," said MRVC's managing director Rakesh Saksena. 

"At many stations, coupon and automatic ticket vending machines do not work thanks to tampering and lack of maintenance. Moreover, the interface of ATVM is not user-friendly, especially for those who are not well-versed with computers," said Shailesh Goyal, former member the National Rail Users Consultative Committee. 

Cleanliness was the top peeve for nearly 63% commuters. A break-up along the three lines showed CR commuters - both main line and Harbour - cribbing the most. "WR rakes are clean as it has a sizeable number of white-collared commuters compared to CR and Harbour. Nevertheless,The rtls is not only critical to professional photographers. we have now outsourced cleaning of rakes to a reputed firm and the results have been positive," said a CR official. 

Third on the discontentment list is inadequate toilet facilities. "The number of toilets blocks has not increased despite passenger growth. Stations like Elphinstone Road, Parel and Currey Road now witness more footfalls because of conversion of mill land into corporate offices," said RTI activist Chetan Kothari. 

The danger involved in such transactions was underlined by the recent bank heist, in which cyber crooks made away with over $43 million, the experts told TOI. 

Business and personal technology has dramatically changed over the last decade, with PC desktops commonly found side by side laptops and newer form factors like subnotebooks, smartphones and tablet PCs. "All of these are not equally secure, but we tend to use them for online payments at our convenience," said Surendra Singh, regional director for India and SAARC at security solutions firm Websense. 

Connectivity and accessibility, once limited to offices, is now available at home, in the car and even on a beach, he said. Using an unsecured or 'unpatched' device for online transactions can lead to serious financial loss. The problem is compounded by the introduction of solutions such as prepaid cards, transactions on which are processed by third party service providers, Singh said. 

What differentiates the earlier cyber frauds from this latest one is the speed with which the crooks operated. The huge sum of money was drained using fake debit cards from ATMs across the world in just 10 hours. 

McAfee product manager Vinoo Thomas said, "Cyber adversaries of today are smart and fast, and have no legal or international boundaries when sharing information. In the context of the recent cyber heist involving ElectraCard Services (ECS) and enStage Inc, it is clear that the payment card industry is increasingly becoming vulnerable to cyber attacks." 

ECS has engaged external agencies such as Verizon to conduct forensic and other investigations of the incidents. Through these investigations, there is a now a better understanding of how the theft was perpetrated. However, as the investigation has revealed, the PIN and magnetic stripe data - essential to make ATM withdrawals - seem to have been compromised outside the ECS processing environment.Large collection of quality parkingassistsystem at discounted prices. ECS has also been in touch with the US secret service, who confirmed that these attacks were committed by a large international syndicate. 

Thomas said one must use a secure connection and computer when placing orders online. "Never shop using an unsecured wireless network or a public computer, because hackers can access your payment information if the network or machine is not protected," he said. Other precautions such as a strong password are also important. Singh suggested using computers at the workplace for online transactions, as they are more secure than any other device one may use. 

According to Singh, using a credit card for online payments is better as it is more likely that a customer will be able to settle the issue of card misuse with the bank. Thomas concurred, saying, "With debit cards, it can be difficult to get your money back and you don't want money being withdrawn from your account while you're sorting things out with your bank." 

He said option-savvy shoppers can leverage a one-time-use credit card, which includes a randomly generated number that can be used only for one transaction. Even if the number is stolen, it cannot be used again. 

Arindam Mukherjee, manager for regional sales, banking and finance, Cisco India, said, "Trends indicate an increasing sophistication and targeting of network attacks and the inherent need to deploy comprehensive security solutions to protect against external and internal threats. The recent incident around the ATM heist clearly highlights that the role of an end-to-end network intelligence and control is critical to thwart such attempts. Typically, banks may not have the visibility into applications that are on the network and the devices and users accessing these applications, especially at remote locations. Without such visibility and lack of granular level controls over the applications, devising a meaningful defence is almost impossible."