Archive · 8 Aug 2026
Mumbai Railways Seek More Ticket Checkers Amid AI Fake Tickets
Mumbai is a very busy city, and crores of people ride the trains there every day.
Some people are cheating the railway by making fake train tickets using computers and smart technology.
They can even make ticket pictures that look real or use apps that look just like the official ticket app.
This makes it very hard for ticket checkers to tell if a ticket is real or fake.
Right now, there are not enough ticket checkers to check all the passengers.
So the railways in Mumbai asked a big office called the Railway Board if they can hire almost twice as many ticket checkers.
The Railway Board is the group in charge of trains in India, and they have to approve the plan.
One day, a ticket checker found a fake app that looked just like the real RailOne app on a train.
The railway wants more checkers so they can catch cheaters and make sure everyone pays for their tickets.
Central and Western Railway have sought nearly double the ticket checking staff on Mumbai's suburban network.
The proposal was sent to the Railway Board, citing rising passenger load and AI-generated fake tickets.
Central Railway currently has around 1,400 ticket checkers, while Western Railway has nearly 1,100.
Mumbai's suburban network carries more than 65 lakh passengers daily, against a norm of one checker per 1,000 passengers.
On June 20, a suspected fake RailOne app was detected on an AC local train, with the UTS number matching an older second-class ticket.
- Who
- Central Railway and Western Railway in Mumbai, with approval sought from the Railway Board
- What
- Both railway zones seek nearly double the ticket checking staff to tackle AI-generated fake tickets and fraudulent ticketing apps
- When
- Proposal recently sent to the Railway Board; the fake RailOne app incident occurred on June 20
- Where
- Mumbai's suburban railway network
- Why
- Rising daily passenger load and growing misuse of AI-generated fake tickets and counterfeit apps make ticket verification harder
- Railway zones
- Central Railway and Western Railway
- Current ticket checkers
- Around 1,400 (Central Railway), nearly 1,100 (Western Railway)
- Proposed strength
- Around 2,800 (Central Railway), 2,300-2,400 (Western Railway)
- Daily suburban passengers
- More than 65 lakh (35-38 lakh Central, 28-30 lakh Western)
- Staffing benchmark
- One ticket checker per 1,000 passengers (Railway Board norms)
- Approval body
- Railway Board
- Key incident
- Suspected fake RailOne app detected on June 20 on an AC local train
- Verification tool
- Hand Held Terminal (HHT)