Journalist builds ticketing app for rail

By AbdulGafar Alabelewe, KadunaKaduna based journalist, Abdulganiyu Alabi, has designed an e-ticketing application Trainwise which can allow passengers book their tickets from their phones.The app works for the Abuja/Kaduna and Lagos/Ibadan Standard Gauge lines.Alabi, who reports for The Guardian newspaper,said the App will help check ticket racketeering and relieve travellers the stress of queuing before obtaining a ticket since they can buy from home or anywhere on their phones with internet connection.He added that the App will help train stations automate booking process and make them more transparent.The journalist urged the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) to adopt the app, saying it can solve about 80 per cent of problems faced at the stations.He said: I joined other journalists to report happenings at the stations and I felt I can solve this problem with my computer knowledge. I can guarantee that if the App is adopted, users will enjoy it.Luckily, my journalism practice helped me a lot because I was able to understand the pain of train users. Before designing the App, I had to embark on research and visit the train stations to observe things happening there.The Kaduna/Abuja line, which has been functioning for more than two years, lacks an e-ticketing app, and passengers lament the difficulties they encounter before securing tickets. The hardship is just too much. That was why I decided that as a solution-based journalist,there is need for me to go beyond reporting and start making things happen with the knowledge in my possession.The app, when adopted by the NRC, will relieve people of the stress they go through to obtain tickets. With the app in place, no more ticket racketeering.You can book for train at home or anywhere at the stipulated time and the moment you reach the station, all you need to do is to show the ticket you purchased to an attendant for QR code scanning and they allow you in.And there is no way you can enter with fake ticket because the QR scanner captures all your bio data.
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