Mail express passenger demanded an increase in the stoppage time of trains and also insisted on big signage's and adequate size coach indicators at the stations to curb the incidents of chain pulling at Kalyan and Thane railway stations. Both stations witnessed substantial number of chain pulling cases in long distance trains, which directly impacts the punctuality of local trains.
In 2021, a total of 1,361 cases of chain pulling were registered in the entire division of central railway out of this 437 cases registered at Kalyan and 181 at Thane.
In 2020, out of total 628 cases of chain pulling registered in the Mumbai division of CRs 313 cases registered at Thane and Kalyan -108 at Thane and 205 at Kalyan.
Similarly in 2019 out of total 1022 cases of chain pulling registered in the Mumbai division of CRs 555 cases were registered, 180 at Thane and 375 at Kalyan respectively.
Almost all express and superfast trains stopps at Kalyan and Thane only for three minutes, and passengers has to rush through the trains that mostly have 24 coaches to locate the reserved coaches.
Hence specially aged people and those with children are suffering a lot currently.
According to passengers they don't want to pull chain, but are force to do it. " My luggage was left behind , due to crowed , hence I was forced to pull the chain" said a 45 year old passenger who was prosecuted by railway for chain pulling .
Similarly an other passengers said, "Because of several numbers of stalls and rush of local commuters ( local trains also being handled from the same platform at Kalyan) boarding long distance trains within three minutes is not a easy task" said another passenger who boarded Pune-Santragachi Express on Monday from the platform number five of Kalyan.
"What passengers need at railway stations is real-time information, directions to emergency points, display panels for transport services, maps indicating local public transport, as well as other useful information" said U S Shukla, who boarded LTT - Ayodhya Superfast Express from Kalyan on Monday.
"Coach indicators and Singages for the mail express train passengers should be improved at Kalyan " said Shukla adding that arrangement of sinagaes not adequate and fonts size of coach indicators are too short.
"Signage at railway stations help passengers spend their time more efficiently and encourage mobility growth. The different types of information displayed inside railway stations assist passengers to rapidly access information points, platforms and trains to reach their destinations, as well as directions to connect with other means of transport" said Mahesh Jha ( 45) who boarded Pawan Express on Monday from Kalyan.
He added that most of passengers book their tickets from CSMT and LTT but board from Kalyan, hence judging the number of long distance passengers according to tickets is not showing the exact number of passengers. Railway should increase the halting time of trains at Kalyan.
"Since most of the passengers check the indicators from foot-over-bridges before taking the way towards platform, hence railway needs to install visible indicators with adequate fonts size and signages at the foot over bridges to " said Subhash Gupta , President of Rail Yatri Parishad , adding that Current coach indicators of Kalyan are too small difficult to read from a distance.
