Western Railway restores monthly pass for 118 trains

A large number of commuter organisations had demanded that monthly season tickets be restored

Western Railway (WR) on Friday announced the restoration of monthly season tickets (MST) for 118 special and mail/express trains with effect from January 14. "The tickets will be issued subject to all norms of the concerned local state administration, state and central government regulations on COVID-19 issued from time-to-time, and the related SOPs will be followed in the trains and railway stations," WR chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said.

The trains in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and beyond include those that travel on routes: Vasai-Diva, Vasai-Panvel, Borivli-Valsad, Diva-Veraval, Boisar-Vasai, Bandra-Vapi, Bandra-Valsad, Mumbai Central-Surat. A large number of commuter organisations had demanded that season tickets be restored on these trains as many small business operators, workers and other commuters need to travel to multiple locations every day; and it was just not possible to take four different passes of Western Railway, Central Railway main line, harbour and trans harbour lines. The main line EMU and express trains offered the required cross-connectivity.

Passengers with valid season tickets will be permitted to travel only in unreserved coaches and not in reserved coaches wherein only passengers with valid reserved tickets are permitted. Also, no separate earmarking of coaches exclusive to MST holders will be done to avoid overcrowding in coaches. Only fully vaccinated passengers, as defined by the state government, will be permitted MST, when either their source or destination falls in the jurisdiction of Maharashtra.