Drunkards, beggars, urchins chilling on Mumbai AC local trains

The pictures shot by passengers on CR’s AC locals

Annoyed and inconvenienced by the influx of beggars, urchins and drunkards into AC trains, some passengers have made a collage of pictures showing this, to alert the authorities. They will soon send the pictures to the Divisional Railway Manager of Central Railway on social media. As the summer heat rises, the official count of passengers on AC locals has also been on a positive rise.

There has been a consistent flow of beggars, drunkards and urchins onboard the AC local trains. Ticket checking on the train is random and the cops also go missing many times. The railways should put TCs and policemen on a schedule to monitor these trains," a commuter, Adwait Sinha said. So far passengers have faced the nuisance on Central Railway AC trains, not on Western Railway AC trains.

"Two weeks ago there was a drunkard enjoying the cool air and sleeping it off on the floor. Now urchins and beggars have also started getting in without fear. We have been alerting the authorities regularly, but there is a need to instill a sense of fear, so that genuine commuters are not inconvenienced," another commuter said.

Central Railway said they will further increase vigil on the trains. "A special drive has been launched and intensified on AC trains to keep check on irregular (ticketless or those with tickets to other classes) travellers. The result of the drive is that 4,167 irregular travellers have been detected in past four months realizing a penalty of Rs 16 lakh from AC trains. Apart from this, RPF have been deputed on these trains," said Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar.

Passengers have faced the nuisance on CR's AC trains, but not on Western Railway

"I would also like to bring to notice that with reference to ticket checking performance, Central Railway has topped all zonal railways across India in the financial year 2021-22. For the first time in the history of Indian Railways, CR's ticket checking staff, by putting in their best, have detected as many as 35.36 lakh cases of irregular travel. Random checks are also conducted on all suburban services. We are committed to give the best services to commuters and our staff and officers are trying their best to do so. We appeal to commuters to travel with valid tickets," he added.

Increasing commuters

With the summer heat on the rise, there has been a rise in the number of commuters on the AC locals. As per ticketing figures, between February 1 and March 11, 65,741 passengers travelled by the AC local trains on the Central Railway local train network, while 49,908 passengers travelled by AC local trains in January on CR.

On WR too, ticketing figures indicate that in the first four days of April, there have already been around 1.07 lakh commuters using the AC locals, which means a daily average of more than 26,600 commuters.

Shiv Sena Member of Parliament Rahul Shewale, has sought a reduction in the fares of Mumbai AC local trains to get more ridership and make them affordable for common Mumbaikars. He said that those travelling on non-AC local trains were suffering, and platforms were getting crowded once an AC train arrived at the station.

4,167
No. of irregular travellers on AC trains in four months