Mumbai: 3 days on, locals a smooth affair for railways

A packed platform of Kandivli station on Wednesday. Pic/Satej Shinde

No flap gates, no colour-coded tickets, but with time limits, ticket checks and action on the maskless, Mumbai's local train operation has so far remained a smooth affair. Commuters have also shouldered the responsibility of travelling cautiously. On the third day of reopening of the city's suburban network for all, about 33 lakh people used the Central and Western railways till Wednesday evening, said officials.

While 20 lakh commuters travelled on Central Railway, the figures for Western Railway was 13 lakh. Over the past three days, more than 30 lakh passengers have been travelling on local trains daily, slowly pushing the ridership towards 50 per cent of pre-COVID level.

"We do not intend to earn revenue as masks are for overall public safety. The aim is to counsel those not wearing a mask. Ticketless travellers are being taken up seriously and fined as railways have now opened booking windows and ticketing apps to the full possible extent in the given limitations," a senior official said.

On the experimental flap gates, QR-code and colour-coded tickets, the sheer volume of crowds has proved to be a major issue. "It would require a complete structural overall of the system to replicate the model of urban Metros on suburban trains in Mumbai. The successful working model of such flap gates on Indian Railways is on Kolkata Metro, but it has been there since the inception," he added. Up until 5 pm on Wednesday, 187 commuters had been fined for not wearing masks. Each of the offenders was fined Rs 200.

33 lakh
No. of commuters on locals on Wed