Vaccinated or not, everyone in Mumbai can take local trains now

Commuters on a Central Railway train near Kalwa, in December 2021. Pic/Atul Kamble

With the state government doing away with all Covid restrictions, the railways on Sunday said it has deleted the vaccination-linked option from its ticketing app with immediate effect. Until recently, only fully vaccinated citizens were allowed to travel on local trains. Commuter bodies have welcomed the decision saying the condition caused inconvenience to scores of people.

"Yes. As per the directives from the state government on the lifting of restrictions, the railways has lifted all curbs and opened ticketing for all at counters and on the app for both railways in Mumbai. This means that commuters won't now need to link their vaccine certificates to the ticketing app. All such instructions have now been withdrawn," a railway spokesperson said.

The official said that all the authorised entry-exit gates, lifts, escalators, foot overbridges closed during the pandemic, all commercial ticket counters and ATVM machines for booking will now be opened. This is in addition to the removal of restrictions on the UTS mobile app for fresh ticketing.

Mumbai local train tickets and passes were available only for doubly vaccinated and had to be linked to the vaccination certificates and universal pass generated by a state government portal. Opposing this, a group of citizens had also approached the high court, which last month blasted the state and asked it to clarify its stand. The government recently decided to do away with all the restrictions from April 1 citing a drop in Covid cases in Maharashtra.

As per the latest statistics, daily passenger numbers on Mumbai suburban trains have touched nearly 65 lakh - about 35 lakh on the Central Railway and over 29 lakh on the Western Railway. The figures are 15 lakh less than that of pre-pandemic levels.

Senior citizen passenger committee member 62-year-old Mansoor Umer Darvesh from Jogeshwari had sparked a debate in September 2021 by stating in a letter to the chief minister's office and the railway bosses that vaccination was a choice and public transport was right. Darvesh on Sunday welcomed the decision. "It is good news for Mumbai commuters. Also, it was a long pending demand. Due to political oneupmanship, the common man suffered because of such restrictions on ticketing for the lifeline. The common man suffered a lot in two years, which was mental torture for everyone. Due to this, the railways lost almost R1,000 crore in their revenue and all this will certainly burden the commuters in the next budget."

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Pre-pandemic daily ridership on local trains