Here’s Why Many Local Train Passengers In Mumbai Are Travelling Without Tickets These Days

Mumbai Suburban Railway is considered one of the busiest transportation systems. Over 60 lakhs of commuters travel on Mumbai trains every single day. In an interesting turn of events, the number of commuters catching trains ticketless is only increasing. There are reasons behind the surge in such local train passengers. Here’s why people are choosing to take the risk of travelling without tickets.

A Shocking Number Of Commuters Are Roaming Ticketless

The City of Dreams is known for its infamous crowd of locals all the time. In between all these crazy passenger footfalls, authorities often catch people travelling on trains without tickets. You will be shocked to hear that the Western Railway came across 5,274 passengers taking Mumbai locals without purchasing a ticket. They found these people while a thorough checking in a span of three days, according to a report by Hindustan Times. The authorities took a fine total of ₹13.93 lahks from these commuters without tickets.

Also read: India’s First Bullet Train: Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project Gets First 70m Steel Bridge

The checkings were conducted at Dadar Station, Andheri Station, Bandra-Mumbai Central line, and Virar Station on September 30, October 3, October 5, and October 6 respectively. A total of 186 TCs worked in this drive to catch commuters without tickets. On the first day, the authorities caught 1,647 ticketless people followed by 2,693 on day 2 and 934 people on day 3.

Read To Know Why Train Passengers Are Catching Trains Without Valid Tickets

There are several reasons that are coming into action for train passengers to stop using tickets and travel. One of the reasons is the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people got into the habit of being ticketless during the pandemic, according to the HT report. Also, people are catching trains ticketless as the number of TCs is also less. A senior official of the Railways talked about how many commuters reasoned fewer numbers of checkers for travelling without tickets. Shockingly, many even mentioned that they are ready to pay a fine once in 2-4 weeks rather than waiting in lines to purchase train tickets.

Also read: Deccan Odyssey Goes Electric! The Luxury Train Plans To Run On Electric Engine Soon

What do you think of the continuing behaviour of the train passengers? Are these reasons good enough to travel without tickets and pay a fine?

Cover Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

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