Canara Bank ATMs is where everyone might be lining up right now to get their long distance tickets booked.

The Central Railway (CR) has recently introduced an initiative whereby passengers can book their tickets through ATM. Presently there are 21 ATMs installed on Mumbai's central line to extend the facility and all these ATMs belong to Canara Bank. However CR soon plans to extend the ATMs to other banks.

To book a ticket through an ATM, the passengers have to fill in all their details on a form available on screen of the ATM machine and then make payment via the debit card following which a ticket will be issued to the passenger.

The chief PRO of Central Railway, S C Mudgerikar said, "If everything goes as per the schedule, the project will be extended to all railways at all major stations across the country by April 2009."

Even the Western Railway (WR) is starting a service where the commuters can book suburban tickets through SMS. The facility is likely to begin by WR in the next two months.

CR is also going to start this SMS facility once the pilot project initiated by WR is a success.