Mumbai suburban ridership has not reached pre-pandemic levels: CR officials

Central Railway's Mumbai suburban network has not got back pre-COVID ridership levels as yet, with work-from-home (WFH) being a possible cause, a top official said on Thursday.

Rajnish Kumar Goyal, divisional railway manager of CR's Mumbai division, in an informal discussion with mediapersons here, said the number of commuters using the network was less by 7-8 lakh per day.

"Presently, we are ferrying 37 lakh suburban commuters, while this figure was 45 lakh before the pandemic (that started in March 2020)," he said.

An official said work-from-home maybe a reason for the ridership falling short, while other causes could be increased short distance travel and permanent migration of the labour class from the metropolis and surrounding areas amid the pandemic.

Mumbai's suburban network, operated by CR and Western Railway, used to have a daily passenger count of 80 lakh, before large-scale restrictions, including travel only for essential and frontline staff during the peak of the pandemic, bringing down ridership drastically, officials said.

Central Railway operates 1810 services per day on its Main line (CSMT to Kasara / Khopoli), Harbour line (CSMT-Goregoan/Panvel), Trans-Harbour line (Vashi-Thane/Panvel) and Bamandongri-Belapur/ Seawood line.