The Central and Western Railways ridership crossed a new high of 64 lakh commuters on Monday. This is just 20% short of pre-Covid time on average daily ridership of 80 lakh.
Data provided by CR officials showed that CR ridership touched a new high of 36.22 lakh on December 13, 2021, which is nearly short of the pre-Covid time daily average ridership of 45 lakh.
Similarly, on December 13, WR recorded around 28 lakh ridership, which is just 20 less than the pre-Covid time daily average of 35 lakh.
Not only common passengers but also air-conditioned local train passengers were seen heading towards new normal.
"Between December 1 to 14, nearly 1.08 lakh passengers travelled by AC local train services of WR," said an official adding that it is as good as normal.
"Mumbaikars were forced to travel in crowded local trains because they didn't have other options," President of Rail Yatri Parishad Subhash Gupta said.
Similarly, BEST, which is known as the second lifeline of Mumbai, carried over 27 lakh passengers last Monday. "Before the pandemic, the daily average passenger count for BEST was nearly 32 lakh," said an officer of BEST adding that we are trying our best to run maximum services.
After the outbreak of the pandemic, the suburban services were completely stopped from March 22, 2020. Later, railways began suburban services for essential service categories as identified by the Maharashtra government and approved by the Ministry of Railways from June 15, 2020.
Currently, apart from fully vaccinated people, essential workers, government officials of selected categories, people less than 18 years of age, and people with a medical condition that prevents them from being vaccinated are allowed to travel in local trains.
