Mumbaikars heave a sigh of relief as the burden of fare hike in local trains eased

Mumbai Mirror

Mumbai, 26 Jun 2014: The partial rollback brings respite to Mumbaiites, who will be paying anywhere from Rs 20 to a few hundreds of rupees on railway tickets and season passes.

 

The four-day rush to buy season tickets, which ended on Tuesday with a partial rollback of the railway fare hike, has earned the railways around Rs 70 crore (Rs 30.32 crore for the Central Railway and Rs 40 crore for the Western Railway).

 

The revised fare charts issued by the Central Railway (CR) and the Western Railway (WR), however, revealed that the partial rollback is almost as good as complete rollback, with Mumbaiites having to pay anywhere from Rs 20 to a few hundreds of rupees for second class and first class season tickets, and for the first class single tickets.

 

According to the revised fares, a one-way first class ticket from Churchgate to Dadar, that cost Rs 65, will now cost Rs 70. Similarly, a second class monthly pass from Churchgate to Dadar will cost Rs 130 instead of Rs 115, and the first class season ticket on the stretch will cost Rs 485 instead of Rs 430.

 

On the Central line, a first-class monthly pass from Thane to CST will cost Rs 745 instead of the previous Rs 655, while on the Harbour line, a first class monthly pass from Vashi to CST will cost Rs 790 instead of the earlier Rs 710.

 

Those travelling second class will fare even better. A second class season ticket from Andheri to Churchgate will cost Rs 215 instead of the previous Rs 190 (Rs 650 for a first class season ticket instead of the previous Rs 580). Similarly, on the Central line, a monthly second class season ticket from Kalyan to CST will now cost Rs 315 compared to earlier Rs 280.

 

The fare hike, announced on June 20, had sent the city in a tizzy. Around 70 lakh Mumbaiites use the suburban railway network daily, and those travelling first class were especially hit, as the season ticket rates had nearly doubled on most routes.

 

A commuter, Rajeev Deshpande, rued the trouble he took to buy a season ticket after the fare hike. "I stood in a queue at the CST for more than two hours for a monthly season ticket to Thane. But I’m happy the government realised its mistake and effected a partial rollback," he said.

 

The railway officials said the partial rollback will bring "tremendous relief" to the city. "A monthly first class season ticket from Panvel to CST will be Rs 1,150, against the previous Rs 1,035. That’s a hike of just Rs 115. I don’t think people will be cribbing too much," a railway official said.

 

Activists have now demanded that the Rs 70 crore earned on season tickets from June 20 to 24 be used to raise the height of the suburban platforms. The railway officials, however, rejected the idea saying the budgetary allocations didn’t allow diverting funds for a particular project.