Railways scales up suburban train services in Mumbai Metropolitan Region

In a bid to boost activities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Railways have scaled up the city's suburban train services to 2,000-plus from Sunday.

The Central Railways (CR) and Western Railways (WR) will now run 2,020 trains.

“ Railways to run 610 more daily Special Suburban Services in Mumbai from 1st November, taking the total number of services to 2020,” Railways Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted.

A joint press note issued on Sunday night by CR and WR stated that 610 suburban services will be added to the existing 1,410 services.

An additional 314 suburban services were added on CR to the existing 706, making the total 1,020 services, and 296 suburban services on WR were added to the existing 704, making the total 1,000 services.

Read | Railways works towards on running locals for all in MMR

“It is requested that travellers follow medical and social protocols as mandated for Covid-19. The public is requested not to believe any rumours,” a statement issued by CR spokesperson Shivaji Sutar and WR spokesperson Sumit Thakur.

Last week, the Maharashtra government had written to the CR and WR administration to start more trains and proposed a schedule to accommodate the general public.

However, the joint statement does not mention any details about the schedule proposed by the state government.

More than 80 lakh normally people use Mumbai's suburban network daily, that is spread across six lines covering 390-odd kms and 157 stations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region comprising five districts of Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar and Raigad. The CR and WR used ro run nearly 3,200 services under normal circumstances.

However, because of the Covid-19 Lockdown, the services were shut and were gradually allowed only for people in essential services. Once the Unlock process started, restrictions were eased in phases.