Mumbai: Dwindling lifeline or evolving workforce?

Mumbai doesnrsquot stop However statistics indicate that it is seemingly taking a breather until it is ldquoback on trackrdquo at full steam According to official estimates the cityrsquos lifeline local trains have not reached their preCOVID capacity yetOn Central Railway CR the number of suburban passengers was 15137 crore in 201920 which dropped to 7075 crore in 202122mdasha drop of 5326 per cent due to COVID19 The numbers rose to 12916 crore 202223mdashan upward trend of 8255 per cent In 202324 the numbers rose to 1377 croremdasha rise of 661 per cent from the previous year For the ongoing year till July 2024 the figures were 4462 crore as compared to 4356 crore in 202324 till Julymdasha rise of 245 per centOn Western Railway WR the number of suburban passengers was 12415 crore in 201920 which dropped to 552 crore in 202122mdasha drop of 5554 per cent The numbers rose to 97 crore in 202223mdasha rise of 7572 per cent And in 202324 the numbers rose to 10126 croremdasha rise of 439 per cent over 202223 Till July 2024 the figures were 2696 crore as compared to 2529 crore in 202324 till July a rise of 66 per centPassengers on CR which usually sees higher footfall had dropped to nearly nine lakh per day and the WR saw around 11 lakh commuters per day during the pandemic Stakeholders and experts attributed the drop in ridership to multiple factors including change in work culture postpandemic the rise in the number of private vehicles private bus and cab services in addition to auto rickshaws and the Metros Experts said the condition of crowding and hygiene of suburban railways may also have kept many away from local trains post COVID19CR chief PRO Swapnil Nila said ldquoHybrid work culture WFH the rise in private vehicles and appbased bus and cab services have reduced train passengers Staggered office timings have also contributed to a decrease in passengers in trains Also to note these numbers are of ticketed passengers Staggered office timings have also contributed to a decrease in passengersrdquoMeanwhile WR chief PRO Vineet Abhishek added ldquoNew Metro routes parallel to the western line as well as business shifts from South Mumbai to areas like SEEPZ have also led to changing commuter preferencesrdquoPopular bus operator Cityflo says it mainly caters to corporate crowds and that too a minuscule population of the suburban railwayrsquos nearly 8 million passengers ldquoMumbai suburban railways carry over 75 million passengers daily but only about 3000 or 004 per cent have switched to Cityflo Cityflo primarily moves corporate professionals who used cars cabs and twowheelers which constitutes 80 per cent of our ridershiprdquo Cityflorsquos cofounder and CEO Jerin Venad saidMumbairsquos Metro network of 465 km with 42 stations falls mostly in the western suburbs with three lines The Blue Line 1 Versova to Ghatkopar carries around 5 lakh commuters on weekdays and the average ridership of Yellow Line 2A Dahisar East to Andheri West and Red Line 7 Ovaripada to Gundavali is about 25 lakhRTO records say the cityrsquos vehicle count is about 46 lakh April 2024 data indicating that Mumbai has seen a rise in private vehicles The cityrsquos vehicle density is at its peak with 2300 vehicles per km in 2024 In 2019 it was 1840 vehicleskm and 1150 vehicleskm in 2014Senior transport expert with Mumbai Mobility Forum amp Mumbai Vikas Samiti AV Shenoy said ldquoIn a city with failed public transport the drop in local train numbers could be due to multiple factors but the main reasons could be hybrid work culture use of personal or company vehicles private services like Cityflo or Mylo UberOla and auto rickshaws and cabs as is evident from more congestion on roads I donrsquot think Metros have much impact as the new linesmdash2A and 7mdashhave hardly any occupancyrdquoMobility expert Rishi Aggarwal said ldquoI think it is possibly due to the city becoming more polycentricmdashshorter distances not requiring trains possibly a metro city effectrdquo ldquoLook at the vehicles on the street It is obvious that people are using private vehicles and serviceshellip Also WFH is proving to be economical for companies so the trains are less crowdedrdquo Jitendra Gupta of the Citizen Transport Committee explainedPublic policy transport expert Paresh Rawal said ldquoThe reduction in numbers could be attributed to alternative transportation which means it is not just WFHmdashwhich is gradually becoming nonexistentmdashat least in the segment we are talking about However the answer to this lies in is why people are looking for alternative means of transportation Mumbai suburban trainsrsquo frequency punctuality and overall ease of travel have only deteriorated leading commuters to look for alternativeshelliprdquoldquoThere should be a comprehensive survey on the travel patterns of Mumbaikars in 2024 There could be multiple journeys that one takes from home to workplace including taking an auto rickshaw to the station the train then a kaalipeeli cab or private buses Complete research done including all such factors over four or five months will provide us solid data That would help us make some sensible policies As of now we are just fixing broken thingsrdquo he added Mobility expert Aggarwal echoed the opinionAshok Datar senior transport expert and chairman of the Mumbai Environmental Social Network explained ldquoToday on average we have 70 lakh suburban train commuters 30 lakh use BEST buses eight lakh use Metros 25 lakh cars and three lakh use taxis and auto rickshaws bringing the total commuters in Mumbairsquos public transport system to 108 lakh To understand traffic itrsquos essential to analyse the usage of road space by different types of vehicles including parking spaces We can optimise road space by prioritising more spaceefficient buses We have invested thousands of crores in urban roads and Metros without giving enough thought to measuring and optimising the use of existing road spacerdquoThen why are stations bursting at seams The answer to this is probably a huge number of undocumented ticketless passengers The official statistics are based on the ticket sales of various categoriesOfficials said on average about 25 per cent of passengers travel ticketless despite the ldquocheapest fares on Mumbai suburban railwayrdquoTo a question on the preCOVID19 data which had similar lacunae so what makes so much of a difference now officials said the number of ticket checkers TCs on suburban railway too had gone down and there were hardly new recruits postpandemic as old hands retired This has probably led to a rise in ticketless passengersDespite this railways have managed to penalise a huge number of defaulters though there is scope of improvement During the fiscal year 202324 CR Mumbai earned R115 crore from 2056 lakh cases of ticketless or irregular travel and unbooked luggage WR collected R46 crore from 962 lakh such cases However more TCs and increased finepenalty will act as a further deterrent against the menace