27 March,2020 07:18 AM IST | Mumbai | Rajendra B Aklekar
Masks being made at the Lower Parel railway workshop
Mumbai's rail commuters want the Central Railway (CR) and the Western Railway (WR) to extend their season tickets, as the railways have discontinued suburban services for over 15 days now. But railway authorities have told mid-day that no decision has been taken regarding this.
"My pass is expiring on March 31 but I have stopped travelling since March 23 when the suburban services were suspended. The railways should compensate the loss or extend the expiry of season tickets," Mumbai commuter Pramila Jagtap said.
About 8 million commuters travel by Mumbai suburban railway every day and over 70 per cent of them use season tickets, which are issued monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annually.
"Suburban trains have been down for over 15 days now and those who had taken monthly passes should be given at least a month's extension and those who have quarterly, half-yearly passes etc should be given an extension of the days the trains have remained cancelled," Shailesh Goyal, member of Western Railway's Zonal Consultative Committee, the official passenger representative body on WR, said.
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"Yes. I agree," said Viral Shah who bought an expensive pass for the AC local train. "The AC train fares are about 1.2 times more than that of regular trains and they were the first ones to get cancelled. The railways should consider an extension from the day the services resume," he said.
CR Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said, "As of now there is no decision on this. It could only be considered after trains start. At present, all unreserved ticketing is closed." WR Chief Public Relations Officer Ravinder Bhakar also said the same. IRCTC officials said that while there is no decision on suburban trains, an automatic refund is being given on e-tickets for all outstation mail/express trains cancelled by the railways.
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