Mumbai local trains scaled up to 95% pre-Covid levels

The Maharashtra government has allowed people who have received both doses of Covid-19 vaccines to travel in suburban local trains of the MMR

After a gap of nearly four months, Mumbai's suburban train services were scaled to 95 per cent of pre-Covid levels on Monday marking a major increase in passengers.

The Maharashtra government has allowed people who have received both doses of Covid-19 vaccines to travel in suburban local trains of the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR), coinciding with the Independence Day festivities.

Both the Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) are running services at 95 per cent services of the pre-Covid-19 levels.

The CR is running 1,686 services as against the pre-Covid services of 1,774 services.

The WR is running 1,300 services as against the pre-Covid services of 1,367 services.

The CR-WR suburban network is spread over 390 km – and considered the lifeline of Mumbai – as it carries over 70 to 80 lakh commuters daily.

Spread across six lines covering 390-odd km and 157 stations in the MMR comprising five districts of Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar and Raigad, the city is highly dependent on the railway network.

The CR-WR used to collectively run around 3,000 services daily in the MMR.

The Maharashtra government had launched the ‘Universal Travel Pass’ or e-pass facility for passengers.