With the declining rate of the coronavirus cases in the city and the ongoing vaccination drive, the number of passengers travelling via local trains is increasing. The number of people in suburban trains is also increasing due to the gradual unlocking. Hence, the state government from January 29 will resume the Mumbai local trains to its pre-COVID figures, however, the services will be limited to only those who have been allowed to travel by the suburban railways.
An additional 204 special local train services would run on the Mumbai suburban network, said, railway officials.
With this, the total number of services on the suburban network will go up to 2,985, the Central Railway and the Western Railway said in a joint statement on Tuesday, January 26.
Currently, only some categories of commuters, like women and those engaged in essential services, lawyers, journalist et al can travel by local trains in the Mumbai region after obtaining a special pass, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The suburban train services were suspended in March- end last year due to the coronavirus outbreak and gradually resumed from June.
Despite restrictions, over 21 lakh passengers are travelling on the Western and Central Railways. Therefore, the local round trips will be increased to 1,685. As a result, the railway administration has decided to hike the price of the train tickets too, said Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer, Western Railway..
As on December 23, 2020, 7.60 lakh passengers had commuted in the local. It was informed that by January 6, 2021, the number of footfalls has reached to 8.26 lakhs. Though, the suburban network, called Mumbai's lifeline, use to ferry over 70 lakh commuters daily before the coronavirus outbreak.
Before the lockdown, there were 1,367 local trains on the Western Railway every day. Thereafter, the number of rounds was gradually increased to 1,201 rounds.
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