Overcrowding, safety issues top concerns; WR, CR officials vow to look into the matter
Riddhima Paliwal and Aryaa Singham
Mumbai students and their parents have appealed to the railways to introduce concessional AC local train passes.
Mathematics professor Vijayendra Singham in letter to Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Fare concession is available for first and second-class monthly season tickets for regular local trains but not the AC local line of Mumbai. There is not much difference in AC and first-class ticket fares but I can’t understand why there is only a concession for students for non-AC EMUs.”
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Also read: Mumbai: Give us our 7.47 am AC local back, demand Dombivlikars
Law student Riddhima Paliwal said students would be grateful if the railways agreed to the demand. “Travelling in AC locals will help us in a big way,” she said.
Aryaa Singham, a Std XII student of Kirti College, said, “The cramped travelling conditions are bad for students and if a concession is offered to us, it will be immensely helpful. For our overall safety, we request the railways to start giving concessions to students on monthly and quarterly AC local passes.”
“Students travelling on local trains have to often deal with overcrowding during peak hours and if railways offers concessions for popular trains, it will work well,” she added.
Western Railway (WR) Chief Public Relations Officer Sumit Thakur stated, “Fares have recently been made reasonable. However, we shall convey the demands to the authorities.”
Likewise, Central Railway (CR) Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said that though fares of AC trains have already been slashed, the matter would be looked into.
The prices of AC local train tickets have been substantially reduced since May 5 and a single journey ticket (up to 10 km) costs a minimum of Rs 35 only.
AC local trains have been extremely popular in Mumbai, and CR at present runs 56 such services with five trains while WR operates 48 services with four trains. As per ticket figures, 14,51,029 and 10,36,653 passengers took the AC local on WR and CR, respectively, in July.
The first AC local service in Mumbai was kicked off on December 25, 2017 on WR. In the pre-pandemic era, an AC local train had been inducted on CR’s trans-harbour line but was discontinued due to the lockdown.
Subsequently, AC local train services were introduced on the harbour line. But later it was found that the harbour and trans-harbour line services were not garnering enough response. It was then decided to focus on the main line and all AC services were shifted to it.
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