Central Railway’s passenger count goes up by one lakh

MUMBAI: The Central Railway (CR) that ferries 42 lakh passengers on its three lines daily, has witnessed an increase of one-lakh commuters in its network.

CR officials have said that the passengers have increased owing to extension of the suburban services to Goregaon on the harbour line. The number of suburban trains were increased from 1660 to 1732. CR had extended 49 services between CSMT-Goregaon on March 29.

A senior CR officer said, "We have earned Rs 175 crore by ferrying 23.12 crore passengers in the last 2 months." In the same period last year, 22.5 crore passengers had used suburban services by paying Rs 170 crore.

According to him, if the number of passengers in last months was compared with last year's two months then 62 lakh passengers have increased on all the three lines including mainline, harbour line and trans harbour line.

“It means an average of one lakh passengers have increased on the suburban lines,” he said CR's revenue during this period through ticket sales has gone up by Rs 5 crore.

The CR also caught 3.11 lakh commuters travelling without tickets in the last two months, while 2.98 lakh commuters were fined in the same period in 2017. 13,000 passengers were fined more this year.  

At present, the CR carries 42 lakh passengers everyday, while the Western Railways ferries 36 lakh commuters. It means a 78 lakh passengers are using suburban services everyday in Mumbai.