MUMBAI: A day after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray declared that decision to permit general public to travel in local train will be taken soon, Western Railway (WR) announced that it will start all its 1,367 suburban services from January 29.
At present, WR runs a total of 1,201 services per day. Around 9 lakh passengers are traveling in these many services. Currently, CR runs 1,580 services, including 836 on the main line.
WR’s chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said, “Passengers as permitted by ministry of railways and government of Maharashtra are only allowed to travel by suburban trains. Passengers are advised to adhere all norms, SOPs related to Covid-19 during the boarding, travel and at destination. Others are requested not to rush the station.”
Both CR and WR are allowed to carry not more than 700 passengers per train as per social distancing rules. This means, only 22 lakh people can travel in local trains even with the full complement of 3,141 services—1,367 on WR and 1,774 on all four CR lines.
Since only essential service category people are allowed to travel in train, some general category passengers are buying fake ID cards belonging to medical, banking etc.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/western-railway-to-run-all-its-1367-local-services-in-mumbai-from-january-29/articleshow/80469292.cms
