Western Railway (WR) will increase the number of seats for senior citizens on suburban local trains by converting one of the two luggage compartments in each train. This change will double the current number of senior citizen seats from 14 to 28 per train.
This step follows a Bombay High Court order passed last year. The court had directed Indian Railways to allow senior citizens to board through luggage compartments. The order came in response to a public interest litigation. The petition had demanded special coaches for elderly commuters.
To follow the order, Western Railway will modify the seventh coach from the Churchgate end in each of its 110 non-air-conditioned trains. Each converted coach will have 14 seats marked for senior citizens. The compartment will be labelled as "Senior Citizens" and will belong to the general class.
As per reports, it will cost INR 5.40 crore, and tenders for the work have also been floated. The coaches will be modified at the car sheds in Virar and Mumbai Central. The conversion will happen in phases and will be finished within a year.
At present, Western Railway local trains have 14 senior citizen seats. Seven are in the third coach, and seven are in the twelfth coach from the Churchgate end. These seats are outside of the women’s section. Around 50,000 senior citizens use local trains in Mumbai every day.
One luggage and vendor coach will still remain in each train. According to railway officials, the number of commuters carrying heavy baggage has gone down. This has made it easier to repurpose one of the luggage compartments.
The coaches being changed were mostly used by Mumbai’s dabbawalas. They deliver thousands of lunchboxes across the city. But their numbers have dropped.
In a 12-coach train, luggage compartments take up 6.18% of space. But they serve only 0.32% of passengers. In contrast, general class compartments take up 71% of the train space and serve 90% of the commuters.