Mumbai: Railways see low crowd, high cancellations

Is there thinning of crowds on Mumbais local trains and cancellations reported on planned journeys Yes and it is the railway statistics over the past few days that itself is proving so The railways have been reporting increased cancellations and giving out refundsWhile suburban traffic on Central Railway has shown a significant dip from 465 million passengers per day in January 2020 the numbers went down further to 446 million in February 2020 the month Corona Virus started making impact in India and till March 10 the average passenger count has gone down to 422 million per dayA test drive by midday with photographs taken at the citys biggest railway terminus Mumbai CSMT station during evening rush hours at 530 pm and 730 pm did show the thinning of crowds at the stationIt seems people also have been frantically cancelling their long distance train tickets booked for vacations too As per official statistics between March 4 and March 11 2019 about 73661 passengers had booked tickets with 10635 cancellations reported but in 2020 during the same period the cancellations have gone up While 66980 passengers had booked tickets between March 4 to 11 2020 there have been 14587 cancellations which means lesser bookings but more cancellations with a rise of over 4000 over last years figuresWhile the thinning of crowds on suburban trains has been noticeable for the past two days railway officials said that it will not reflect immediately reflect in daily ticket statistics as more than 80 pc suburban passengers use season ticketsHence the average sale of suburban tickets on Western Railways Mumbai suburban railway does not show immedaite reflection though it dipped from 750828 on March 9 to 527342 on March 10 due to Holi holiday it stood up again to 778282 ticketsThere has been about 18 pc rise in cancellation of tickets of outstation trains on Western Railway as compared to that of last year WR statisics reveal that between March 1 and March 11 2019 while there were 398053 ticket cancellations between the same period this year the ticket cancellations have gone up to 473213 a rise of 75160 cancellationsTicket bookings for the vacation season coming ahead are also seeing cancellations As per the statistics available on Western Railway between April 15 to June 15 this year there have been significant cancellations on each train with over 2000 cancellations on MumbaiDelhi Rajdhani Express alone followed by other trainsWhile officially there are no reasons given for the cancellations the railways say that the numbers are on the rise and the railways have been refunding money as per rulesIndian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation IRCTC said they were postponing their international travel packages to October and beyond thatCentral Railway chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said Central Railway has geared up its entire machinery in a big way to take comprehensive measures on prevention of Corona COVID 19 virus infection All medical incharges of hospitals have been advised to be in constant touch with the respective State Authorities to obtain the guidelinesupdates issued on the subject and take necessary detection prevention amp curative measures suggested by such State AuthoritiesStation staff have been sensitized about corona virus COVID19 for necessary action immediately Sutar saidWestern Railway chief public relations officer Ravinder Bhakar said Western Railway has also made arrangements for Quarantine facilities all over the Western Zone with a capacity of 1005 beds In order to spread awareness on corona educative posters on Dos amp DONTs has been displayed at prominent locations across all station premises amp inside trains audio and video clips are being played through the Central announcements on Public Address System as well as LED amp TV screensCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates