In a first, the Western Railway’s (WR) air-conditioned local train services have crossed the milestone of 1 crore passengers in this financial year up to Oct 27. In 2018-19, AC ridership stood at 47.20 lakh which shot up to 54.73 lakh in 2019-20. The promising figures of increasing AC ticket sales and passengers are from the time the rail ministry slashed fares of daily tickets by 50% on May 5 this year.
According to a senior WR official, there has been a substantial rise in the number of commuters traveling by AC local trains since the past few months. The total number of commuters who travelled in AC locals from April till date is around 1.01 crore, which is almost 85% more as compared to the 2019-20 ridership. “Currently, the WR is running 79 AC local services which are garnering good response from commuters,” underlined the WR officials.
Not just on the WR, the AC ridership has also increased significantly on the Central Railway as well. Between April 1 and Oct 26, 72.32 lakh passengers travelled in AC locals. Currently, 56 such services are being operated by the CR on its main line.
Owing to the growing crowd during peak hours, 'cool' commuters have asked the railways to add more services. Several CR passengers have even started a signature campaign to bring back 10 AC services which were discontinued, after a protest by non-AC train commuters in August.
Likewise, the clamour for more services has also grown on the WR. “Now boarding AC trains from Andheri and Borivali becomes very tough during rush hours. The railway needs to think positively,” said Shanti Kataria, who frequently travels between Borivali to Churchgate. Another regular passenger from Vasai, Mukesh Shah, said, “Especially during evening rush hours, boarding AC local trains from Andheri becomes quite a challenging job for commuters. Most AC locals are running in full capacity during rush hours.”
