Mumbai: Nearly two months after the Central Railway (CR) cancelled ten AC local trains, commuters have written to the railways to provide additional AC locals during morning peak hours. The commuters, mainly from Dombivili, conducted a signature campaign before approaching the CR with the request.
In April, CR had an average of 20,000 daily ticket sales of AC locals, which increased to around 46,094 in September. There is almost a 79% increase in daily passengers from April to September along Central Railway. Although the demand for AC locals has increased, the commuters from Dombivli feel the services to be inadequate.
N Y Joshi, 63, a resident of Dombivli and a regular commuter of the 8:14 local train that departs from Dombivli, has spearheaded the signature campaign.
“There are two AC trains from Dombivli at 8:59 on the fast and slow line each during morning peak hours. Both these AC trains are not starting at Dombivli hence we request railways to make provision for a starting AC local train for the convenience of commuters,” he said.
According to data shared by CR in August, Dombivli station had maximum ticket sales at 94,932 tickets. Close on heels was Thane station with 84,309 ticket sales. This highlighted the preference for AC local trains among commuters from Dombivli.
Rakesh Panicker, 38, another resident of Dombivli, said, “The ac trains coming from Kalyan and Titwala are already occupied leaving very little space for Dombivli commuters.”
Meanwhile, officials from CR said that they have received the petition, adding, “we will look into this demand.”
From August 19 onwards, Central Railway included 10 additional AC local services along with the existing 56 services. However, on August 22, commuters in Kalwa and Badlapur protested against these trains as some of these had replaced the existing regular local train services. Following this, politicians also took up this issue on August 24. CR then announced the cancellation of the newly introduced 10 AC local services.