Mumbai: Announcements inside local trains are major irritation, express commuters

Commuters said their efforts to address the noise pollution issue have been futile. File pic

Loud and unnecessary announcements inside local trains have irked city rail commuters, with many stating that there is no proper mechanism to complain on the spot and get this problem fixed.

"Earsplitting announcements are being made inside a number of trains. Most of them are public-interest messages, but the sharp noise is very irritating. We usually complain to the motorman or the guard, but it does not help," a commuter, Dhananjay Deshmukh, said.

Another commuter, Manjiri Shinde, said, "We took to Twitter to complain, but we were then asked details like train number, coach number and timing, etc. It defeats the purpose as the complaint of irritating announcements on the trains remains unaddressed. I have also switched and skipped trains to avoid them," she added.

Commuter activist Prakash Seth said, "On Central Railway's Mumbai division, a public-service message in three languages is foolishly tagged to the default announcement, keeping the blabber non-stop. What point does it prove? Just some satisfaction of some official somewhere or achievement of some target? It is irritating to the core."

"There is no immediate redressal of the problem and most of the time people do not know where and to whom to complain," another commuter, Athik Parashar, said.

Also read: Mumbai: Lives at risk, locals warn, will look into it, says Central Railway

Mumbai-based noise activist and founder of Awaaz Foundation Sumaira Abdulali said, "Commuters in Mumbai often use 'free' time in trains to socialise or rest, and trains in Mumbai are already very loud and the announcements, over and above the operational noise of the train, often serve little useful purpose because they cannot be heard except as an added background noise. Loud announcements and advertisements are intrusive, and complaints over many years have been ignored by the railway authorities despite the harmful effects of noise pollution on health."

She added, "It is high time the railway authorities took the effects of noise pollution on commuters seriously and stopped all unnecessary announcements."

Railway officials said that the problem of loud public announcements may exist for a few trains, and not all, and that they would fix them at a standard level. "All such complaints are looked after when the train goes for periodic maintenance. However, if there are any particular trains or coaches where the problem needs to be fixed, commuters should add the details of the train or the coach so that the issue can be fixed during night upkeep," a senior divisional official said.

As for long and interminable awareness announcements inside Central Railway trains, divisional officials said they would review the situation and take a call.

Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer, Central Railway, said he would look into the matter. The Western Railway spokesperson also promised that action would be taken.