Mumbai: Local trains back on track with full capacity, restrictions unchanged – Hindustan Times

Local trains in Mumbai were running at full capacity from Thursday, back to the pre-pandemic level after a gap of 19 months, although the Central and Western Railways have said that the existing coronavirus disease (Covid-19)-related protocols will remain in place for the general populace. Earlier, the local train services in the city were running at 95% capacity but considering the increase in the flow of passengers from October 28, the authorities have decided to keep the existing pandemic-necessitated norms in place to prevent a renewed outbreak of the infectious virus.

The Central Railway is set to operate as many as 1,774 local train services from Thursday while the Western Railway will get 1,367 trains back on track. The services resumed from August 15 for fully vaccinated passengers, who can get a universal pass and a monthly railway pass for local train travel.

According to a joint statement issued by the zonal railway divisions explaining the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for local train travel, only certain categories identified by the Maharashtra government shall be permitted for the railway journey. According to the current guidelines, only government employees and those involved with essential services are allowed to travel on the Mumbai suburban trains, in addition to the fully-vaccinated citizens above 18 years of age who have completed at least 14 days since the administration of the second dose of their vaccine.

The suburban local trains are sometimes referred to as the “lifeline” of Mumbai, with as many as 80 lakh passengers using the railway services on a daily basis before the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.

Meanwhile, the weekly positivity rate in Maharashtra has gone down to 1.45% with a dip in the number of Covid-19 cases. According to the World Health Organisation, the positivity rate should remain below 5% for an outbreak to be considered under control.