Railways to expand to 350 local trains in Mumbai from today, only essential staff allowed to travel

Railways will add 300 more trains to Mumbai suburban train services from July 1, officials said on Tuesday. Central Railway and Western Railway will run additional 150 and 148 local services, respectively, in Mumbai, an official statement by the Railways said. 

"Railways to expand to 350 local trains in Mumbai from tomorrow. As identified by State govt, essential staff including employees of Centre, IT, GST, Customs, Postal, Nationalised Banks, MBPT, Judiciary, Defence & Raj Bhavan allowed. No services yet for general passengers," Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said in a tweet. 

Considered Mumbai's "lifeline", local train services came back on track on June 15 after nearly three months. However, the services are only available for essential services staff.

According to a Railways press release, there are total 200 services (100 DN and 100 UP) run by Central Railway, out of which 130 services are running between CSMT and Kasara/Karjat/Kalyan/Dombivali/Thane on main line and 70 services are running between CSMT and Panvel on harbour line. 

150 more services will be added to the existing services making the total to 350 services from July 1. The number of services may be modified as per the requirement to ensure social distancing norms. 

Western Railway said it added 40 additional suburban services to the existing 162 services currently plying on WR's Mumbai Suburban section from June 29. Therefore, presently total of 202 services are running on WR's suburban section. In addition to these services, 148 more suburban services will be added on July 1. 

Therefore, total of 350 suburban services will be operated on WR's Mumbai Suburban section from July 1.

Who is allowed to travel in Mumbai local trains?

In addition to the essential staff already permitted to travel by select suburban services, defence personnel and employees of Central Government, Income Tax, GST & Customs and Department of Posts, employees of Nationalised Banks, Mumbai Port Trust, Judiciary and Raj Bhavan will be permitted to travel in these select suburban services. 

It is stated that these selected suburban services will not be for general passengers/public & will be strictly for essential staff, as identified by the State Government of Maharashtra only, Railways said. 

"Entry will be given at stations strictly through ID cards of essential staff, as identified by the State Government. Later on, the staff will be issued QR based E-passes which will also bear colour coding to enable swifter ticket checking. State Government will ensure issuing these passes," it added.