Mumbai: Tempers soar as city railway stations stop issuing daily tickets

Friday witnessed arguments and anger at various railway stations across the city, as the suspension of daily tickets has led to widespread discontent among commuters. Calling the move ‘utterly foolish', commuters asked the authorities how it was unreasonable to force people to pay a month's fare for a single journey.

The Maharashtra government earlier this week ordered that only fully vaccinated citizens, be it essential workers or general public, will be allowed to travel via local trains, and that no single-journey tickets will be issued. Commuters can buy only monthly, quarterly, six-monthly and annual passes.

Commuters queue up at a ticket counter at Borivli station. File pic/Satej Shinde

To avoid any confusion at the counters, the railways even pasted notices to inform commuters about non-issuance of daily tickets as per the government guidelines. mid-day visited several railway stations across the city on Friday, only to find utter chaos at booking counters.

‘It's in railways' hands'

"The state government may have issued the guidelines, but the decision-making railway officials are disconnected with the ground realities. If it is in their hands, they should discuss and find a way out," said a commuter, Ravindra Kumar Agashe.

"Utter foolishness. How will workers or daily wagers visiting different sites be able to travel? Moreover, inconvenience is caused to essential services employees who have to shuttle from one place to another. The administration thinks only about office/babus," said another commuter, P C Shetra. "Why do we buy a monthly pass, if I only travel for a few minutes and not on a single different line," said Ajay Kumar Rajbhar, a commuter.

A notice about non-issuance of daily tickets at Ghatkopar station on Friday

"Many of us are working from home. But we still need to visit the office for important meetings. We are fully vaccinated and being in essential service, why should we buy a monthly pass instead of paying merely Rs 30 for a one-day ticket?" asked S Polekar. "They should rather emphasise more on the UTS app for ticket or season ticket booking. This way there would be no crowd at ticket windows," said Kiran Thakur.

Essential tricks

Daily tickets have been the key to travel for several commuters. Earlier, many times, the general public would request essential workers to buy tickets for them, but now with the complete suspension of single-journey tickets, there has been an overall frustration. Railway officials said they are just following the directives of the Maharashtra government.