Western Railway will run all of its local services starting Friday

This follows a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday to discuss the opening of local train services to all travelers


Western Railway has begun work on a plan to resume full local train services starting January 29, a Friday, in anticipation of the state government opening local travel for everyone.

Bombay Mirror is in possession of a letter written by the West Mumbai Central Railways Division Traffic Control Department to all station masters asking them to prepare to run a full schedule of local train services starting on Friday.

The order follows a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at his official bungalow on Monday to discuss opening local train services to all travelers. Currently, only essential service workers are allowed to use premises on the West and Central lines, although women are free to access during off-peak hours.

The meeting with the prime minister was attended by the general managers of the central and western railways, the municipal commissioner, and senior state government bureaucrats.

Western Railway currently operates only 1,201 local train services. Starting Friday, this number will increase to 1,367. While currently the number of daily passengers on local trains, taking into account the Central Railway and Western Railway services, is 20 lakh, more than 80 lakh people were using Mumbai local trains before March 24, when a National closure paralyzed the city.

Experts the Mumbai Mirror spoke with on Tuesday said the number of passengers from Mumbai locals is unlikely to reach 80 lakhs a day at any time, even after the state government lifts all travel restrictions. “Many people work from home and the offices have placed restrictions on how many people can be physically present on any given day. Therefore, passenger numbers are unlikely to touch pre-closing numbers when local train travel is open to all, ”said a senior Western Railway official who requested anonymity.

Central Railway officials, who did not want to be named, said they have also been working on resuming full services, although no official orders have been issued so far. Currently, the Central Railway operates 1,580 services a day. In full force, it will operate 1,774 stores per day.

According to a senior state government official, various models are being worked on so that locals can travel to all. “It may be that, initially, access to all is restricted only to off-peak hours. A decision will be made soon, ”he said.