An activist's recent RTI request has brought to light that Central Railway (CR) does not maintain records of escalator malfunctions. The RTI also said that CR spends more on escalator maintenance than Western Railway (WR). CR has information about how much they spend but not about how often they spend on escalators.
On the other hand, Western Railway's data from 2023 shows that each escalator stops operating an average of five times a day. This means WR spends INR 1.85 lakh annually on each escalator on WR. This amounts to INR 1.96 crore annually for 106 escalators between Virar and Churchtage.
Meanwhile, CR's annual maintenance cost for each escalator is INR 2.97 lakh. This totals INR 2.99 crore a year for 101 escalators between CSMT and Kalyan.
This frequent stoppage affects thousands of commuters who rely on these escalators daily. Interestingly, it has been found that porters occasionally halt the escalators to increase the likelihood of commuters using their services. This has happened more at stations frequented by long-distance trains.
The escalators were installed to ease the commute. When stopped, it requires an average of 30-45 minutes to start working. This causes inconvenience to commuters. It has been suggested that the red "stop" button on the railroads should be covered to reduce misuse.
According to reports, at least 95% of the time, malfunctions are caused by dishonest people or miscreants pushing the red button to stop the escalators. The AMC of CR is higher because it includes the cost of equipment and spares and not just maintenance.
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