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University of Moratuwa. 
Faculty of Information technology
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA, SR! LANKA 
MORATUWA
Web Based Mobile Ticket Reservation System for 
Public Transport in Sri Lanka Railway
By:
U. K. D. D. P. UDAWATTA
(108580 N)
University of Moratuwa
\
107137
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Information technology, University of 
Moratuwa, Sri Lanka for the partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of
MSc in Information Technology.
2013
for/37
Supervised by:
Dr. Prasad Wimalaratne -UCSC
107137
DECLARATION
I certify that this dissertation does not incorporate, without acknowledgement, any 
material previously submitted for a Degree or Diploma in any University and to the 
best of my knowledge and belief, it does not contain any material previously 
published or written by another person or myself except where due reference is made 
in the text. I also hereby give consent for my dissertation, if accepted, to be made 
available for photocopying and for inter-library loans, and for the title and summary 
to be made available to outside organizations.
[ok i3>v 2^0 j 2,Date
U. K. D. D. P. Udawatta
M Date 'b
Dr. Prasad Wimalaratne 
Supervisor
S
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed to the success 
of this project and it gives me a great pleasure to convey my sincere gratitude to all.
To Dr. Prasad Wimalaratne, my project supervisor, who guided and supported me 
through the entire duration of the project and keeping me on the right track. He has 
provided me with valuable guidance and a clear and succinct insight. My heartiest 
gratitude to Dr. Prasad Wimalaratne.
I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to my friends Roshan and 
Buddika for the great support given throughout the period of my project.
I also acknowledge with a deep sense of reverence, my gratitude towards my parents, 
wife and member of my family, who always encouraged and motivated me in 
numerous ways to bring my project a success.
Finally, I would like to thank IT Faculty and all my colleagues who helped me to 
carry out this study and make it a success.
n
ABSTRACT
The emerging technology in mobile devices presents new business potential to 
Internet enterprises. The solutions of mobility services made it easier to obtain many 
things at anytime and anywhere, with this new services and technologies the time has 
come to open an another marketing channel to express product and services to the 
consumers. Based on the infrastructure of the existing e-commerce applications, these 
enterprises can extend their services to the vast population of mobile users by 
redesigning some of their business process. Taking the E-Ticket system as an 
example, this paper examines the requirements of m-commerce applications, and 
explores the benefits that mobility contributes by investigating how the electronic 
ticketing service can be extended to the mobile users.
Very often, every journey starts with the purchase of a ticket at ticket counter. This 
often involves waiting in a queue, losing some precious time and extends the whole 
journey. The project talks about the design and development an e-ticket reservation 
system for Sri Lanka railway. It would be convenient to have an electronic system at 
our disposal, that could make this task as easier as possible and without additional 
steps for the passenger.
The main objective of the project online ticket booking system is to book tickets 
online. It provides an alternate and convenient method for a customer to purchase 
tickets. The system is automatic in nature. Once the data is fed into the database, the 
staff need not do anything and the entire order is processed by the system. This 
project also offers the option to refund to the customers. The proposed system allows 
the customers to book tickets from anywhere. The number of staff members is also 
minimized at the ticket counter. There are provisions in the site for a user to become a 
registered member. Through a simple operation the customer can select the seat and 
make the payment. The customer can also cancel the ticket.
Results show that both, usability and intention to use the mobile 
potentially high. Our findings suggest that usefulness and benefits of the mobile 
ticketing service are perceived.
services are
in
TABLE OF CONTENTS
iDECLARATION
iiACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
iiiABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS IV
viiiLIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES IX
ABBREVATIONS x
1Chapter 1.............................................................................................................
Introduction........................................................................................................
1.1 Background and Motivation..............................................................
1.2 Aim and Objectives.............................................................................
1.3 Scope ...................................................
1.4 Proposed benefits................................................................................
1.5 Structure of the Dissertation..............................................................
Chapter 2.............................................................................................................
Background.........................................................................................................
2.1 Introduction.........................................................................................
2.2 Overview of the present ticket booking process...............................
2.3 Drawbacks and Weakness of the Existing System...........................
2.4 Review of Similar Systems................................................................ .
2.4.1 Indian Railways Ticket Bookings.............................................................
2.4.2 China Railway Ticketing and Reservation System..................................
2.4.3 Online ticket reservation system in Sri Lanka........................................
2.4.4 Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) e-ticket system
2.4.5 Euro Tunnel ticket reservation system..................................................
2.5 Statistical review................................................................................ .
2.6 Comparison between the existing process and proposed system .
2.7 Summary .................................................
1
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2
3
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IV
17Chapter 3.................................................................
Technology Adopted..............................................
3.1 Introduction..............................................
3.2 Software Process Model.........................
3.2.1 Waterfall model.......................................
3.2.2 Exploratory development.......................
3.2.3 Component - base software engineering
3.3 Software Specification............................
3.4 Software Design.......................................
3.4.1 Multi Tier Architecture.............................
3.4.2 Presentation tier......................................
3.4.3 Application tier.........................................
3.4.4 Data tier...................................................
3.5 Validation.................................................
3.5.1 Black box testing......................................
3.5.2 White box testing.....................................
3.6 Evolution ......
3.6.1 Manual System.........................................
3.7 Approach..................................................
3.8 Software Process Model.........................
3.9 Apply Technology for the System..........
3.9.1 Advantages of QR code usage.................
3.10 Summary...................................................
Chapter 4.................................................................
Analysis and Design................................................
4.1 Introduction..............................................
4.2 Software requirements............................
4.3 Functional Requirements.......................
4.4 Non functional Requirements................
4.5 Over view of the System..........................
4.6 Flow of general process..........................
4.7 Use Case Analysis....................................
4.8 Activity Diagram.....................................
4.9 Sequence Diagram..................................
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v 34
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• •
344.10 Class Diagram........................................
4.11 Entity- Relationship Diagram............. .
4.12 Interface requirements........................ .
4.13 System Design........................................
4.13.1 Input Design..........................................
4.13.2 Output Design - Visual Design.............
4.14 Summary................................................
Chapter 5..............................................................
Implementation....................................................
5.1 Introduction............................. .............
5.2 Implementation environment..............
5.3 Input/ Output Design Implementation
5.4 Database Implementation................... .
5.5 Code Module.........................................
5.6 Web based system for user registration, ticket reservation and system 
administration.
5.6.1
5.6.2
5.6.3
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User registration .
User login...........
Ticket reservation
44
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44
5.6.4 Payment......................................
5.6.5 Ticket generation.......................
5.6.6 Ticket printing............................
5.6.7 Ticket information update.........
5.6.8 Ticket cancellation.....................
5.6.9 System administration functions
5.7 System Implementation..............
5.8 Summary
Chapter 6.....................................................
Evaluation....................................................
6.1 Introduction.................................
6.2 Method of Evaluation.................
6.3 Evaluation Criteria......................
6.4 Review of objectives.....................
6.5 Evaluation results.......................
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48
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vi
50Level of Mobile literacy.......................................................... .
Previous web based mobile ticket reservation system usage 
Preferred ticket reservation to do in online method.............
6.5.1
506.5.2
516.5.3
516.5.4 User-Friendliness of menus and interfaces.
526.5.5 Level of user satisfaction.....................................................................
6.5.6 Suitability of web based mobile ticket reservation system for other
organizations.......................................................................................................
6.6 Usability of the Proposed Solution................................................
6.7 System Testing.................................................................................
6.8 Summary ..............................................
Chapter 7........................................................................................................
Conclusion......................................................................................................
7.1 Introduction.....................................................................................
7.2 Limitation of project.......................................................................
7.3 Problem Encountered.....................................................................
7.4 Assessment of the Achievements...................................................
7.5 Future Enhancements.....................................................................
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APPENDIX - A 59
References 59
APPENDIX -B....................................................
Web Based Mobile Ticket Reservation System
User Guide............................................................
Table of contents.................................................
APPENDIX-C...................................................
EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRE...............
Appendix D..........................................................
Sample Codes and SQL queries........................
SQL queries.........................................................
Appendix E..........................................................
Test Cases............................................................
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Vll
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
8Figure 2.1 - Activity diagram for existing system
Figure 4.1 - proposed system - How the system works
Figure 4.2 - Web site Use Case diagram
Figure 4.3 - Web site Activity diagram
Figure 4.4 - Sequence diagram for ticket reservation
Figure 4.5 - Class diagram
Figure 4.6 - ER diagram
Figure 5.1 - Database Implementation
Figure 5.2 - Coding Structure
Figure 5.3 - System Flow
Figure 5.4 - View train schedule
Figure 5.5 - Ticket reservation detail
Figure 6.1 - Mobile Literacy level
Figure 6.2 - Preferred ticket reservation to do in online method 
Figure 6.3 - User friendliness of menus and interfaces 
Figure 6.4 - User satisfaction level
Figure 6.5 - Suitability of web based mobile ticket reservation system for other 
Organizations
Figure 6.6 - Sample of test case
Figure 6.7 - Graphical presentation of test results
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vm
LIST OF TABLES
Page
14Table 2.1 - Mobile Subscribers growth
Table 2.2 - Traditional systems and proposed system
Table 3.1: Comparison of Alternative Systems
Table 4.1 - Main actors of the system
Table 6.1: Test case results
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IX
ABBREVATIONS
SLR Sri Lanka Railways
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka
Short Message Service
Multimedia Messaging Service
Global System for Mobile communication
Quick Response
TRCSL
SMS
MMS
GSM
QR
x