The success of any system depends on the user community

Here I’m not talking of any IT systems. The other day I was traveling from Chennai to Bangalore by train. In the wee hours of the morning got down at the cantonment station to take the auto-rickshaw from there. I was always happy to reach B’lore as the Pre-paid system for the autos works very well there. It was the greatest pain to discover during this visit that the system has gone for a total toss when the Chennai train arrived. There were a lot of autos @ Stations, but not in the pre-paid counter, but a lot of them a little away from there. Inspite of a big queue standing in the line awaiting for their turn, these autowallahs refused to take passengers from the Pre-paid line. Instead there were lot of people who go to them and pay exorbitant amount to reach their home. What a pity, the police person who was on duty was completely help less as many people don’t bother to stay in the line and approach the autowallahs directly. This creates a problem for all, for the individuals who run the show, the public & the enforcement people. Why all this for a system which was a super hit? This made me think. I was wondering does this happen only for the Chennai trains or for all trains. I think when it comes to Chennai trains these sort of things happen, that’s what I was told. This made me travel back and think what people do @ Chennai central. Same thing inspite of having a prepaid system, still people prefer to go out of the way and get their own service. Why all this? What is the ownership of the individuals in such system. I suppose the people who come to from Chennai by that train are mostly the IT gang, if I’m not wrong.