First working day after govt allows sale of daily tickets, 41 lakh people use local trains

The railways expect that since daily tickets are being issued now, the number of daily passengers is likely to touch 60 lakh after Diwali.

According to officials, while over 23 lakh passengers travelled on Central Railway on Monday, approximately 18 lakh passengers travelled on the Western Railway.

Official data shows that over 4.24 lakh passengers travelled after buying a daily or return journey ticket in the Mumbai suburban train network. While 2.61 lakh passengers travelled after buying daily tickets on central railway, 1.63 lakh passengers travelled on the western railway with daily tickets.

“We are really happy that we are allowed to buy daily tickets and are not forced to buy monthly passes unnecessarily. I am going with my family to Bandra. Earlier it would have been difficult, since I would have had to purchase the whole month’s pass,” said Rahul Sapkal, a resident of Kalyan.

On October 27, the state government had directed the railways to issue only monthly or other passes since workers under essential services and government personnel were allowed to travel in trains irrespective of their vaccination status. They were allowed to buy daily single or return journey tickets.