Increase in passengers but no crowding at Mumbai suburban local trains
Nearly one million additional passengers travelled by suburban local trains on Central and Western Railway on Monday and Tuesday, as compared to last week.
As local train services resumed for the general public on the first working day on Tuesday, queues of passengers outside railway booking offices and an increase in passengers travelling from suburban local train services were witnessed. Nearly one million additional passengers travelled by suburban local trains on Central and Western Railway on Monday and Tuesday, as compared to last week.
On an average, nearly 2.9 million passengers travelled by suburban local trains last week with 1.4 million travelling on Central Railway (CR) and 1.5 million on Western Railway (WR).
While local train services resumed for fully vaccinated passengers on Sunday, Sunday and Monday were public holidays.
Queues outside railway booking offices were witnessed at Kurla, Ghatkopar, Bandra, Andheri, Dombivli and Borivli railway stations.
According to railway authorities, at Thane railway station minimal crowding near local train compartment was witnessed during peak hours on Tuesday. The railways deployed additional Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel to maintain social distancing.
“We noticed an increase in the number of passengers but there was no incident of overcrowding on Tuesday. An increase in passenger queues were seen outside railway booking offices but the process of issuing passes went smoothly as all railway booking offices are operational,” said a senior railway official.
Passengers who travelled on Tuesday said there was no crowding inside train compartments. “The crowd was less as compared to what I had anticipated. I travelled from Ghatkopar to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) during morning peak hour but did not find a lot of crowds,” said Aarti Jain, a Vidyavihar resident.
On Tuesday up till 7pm, 17,761 monthly season passes were issued by CR and 8,133 by WR.
Meanwhile, around 7,698 citizens have been cleared for suburban railway travel at 11 railway stations of Navi Mumbai and acquired the season pass for train travel. So far, 76,98 citizens in Navi Mumbai have obtained the railway pass.
Inputs from Raina Shine