As public access to local trains completes a month on Wednesday, it has been a rollercoaster ride for commuters. Though they are happy to travel on the lifeline, fully vaccinated citizens are upset at not being allowed to buy single-journey tickets. This has also led to the ballooning of ticketless travellers. Since Independence Day, 7,43,443 people have bought or renewed season tickets. 

The state government allowed fully vaccinated Mumbaikars to use local trains from August 15 and also introduced a system to authenticate their vaccination certificates. While the Central Railway has sold or renewed 5,48,046 season passes, 1,95,397 such tickets were issued by the Western Railway. Dombivli on CR and Borivli on WR have sold the most number of season passes. Officials said the daily average footfall on Mumbai’s suburban network before August 15 was in the range of 25-30 lakh.