Nearly two years of Covid-19 had no impact on the Mumbai suburban railway. A lot of fun and creative gadgets, like robots and scanners, were introduced, but none lasted. Despite the changes brought on by the pandemic, no fundamental improvement has been done. The same old, reliable ticket checker remained in place as more people were allowed to take local trains from Sunday.

“The railways had so much time to do something to handle the post-pandemic travel, but all the ideas considered over the months were temporary. It could have used the pandemic period as an opportunity,” said A V Shenoy from Mumbai Mobility Forum.