The number of suburban trains will go up during the morning and evening rush hour from Friday, rail officials said after a meeting with state government representatives at Bhavani Bhavan on Thursday.
Additional trains ran in the Howrah and Sealdah divisions on Wednesday and Thursday but trains were still overcrowded. A formal announcement regularising the additional trains is unlikely to have “much impact” on the implementation of distancing rules, rail officials said.
“We will try to run close to 100 per cent of the trains during the office time from Friday. We will run at least 95 per cent,” U.K. Bal, the principal chief operations manager of Eastern Railway, said.
The morning rush hour means 8am to 11am and the evening 4.30pm to 8pm, a rail official said. The number of trains that ran in the Howrah and Sealdah divisions during these periods before the pandemic was 354 (177 pairs).
On Wednesday and Thursday, close to 145 pairs of trains ran during the morning and evening rush hour.
The risk of running a curtailed fleet came to the fore on both days, forcing the authorities to run additional trains.
“In the Howrah division, 202 trains were notified. But we ran around 300 trains throughout Wednesday as well as Thursday. Additional trains ran in the Sealdah division as well. But rush hour trains were still overcrowded,” an official said.
From Friday, the number of notified trains during office hours will go up to around 170 pairs. “We are close to the maximum capacity during rush hour. But there is still overcrowding. Unless there is some access-control mechanism, maintaining distancing rules is not possible,” another rail official said.
Packed trains in both the Howrah and Sealdah divisions made a mockery of distancing rules on Thursday, too.
At Baruipur station, a senior citizen fell on the platform while trying to get off a local train amidst the rush of passengers in the morning. He had to be admitted to hospital.
At Mullickpur station in South 24-Parganas, the queue at the ticket counter got so crowded that the RPF had to intervene. From the Krishnagar local in the Sealdah division to the Bandel local in the Howrah division, trains saw people fighting for space to stand.
The formal rise in the number of trains came after the state government mounted pressure on the railways following a prod from chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The chief minister demanded more local trains to prevent crowding, something doctors and public health experts have been saying.
Rail officials said the two days had shown a clear pattern. “The crowd is highest during rush hour. At other times, the seats marked to maintain distancing rules are empty. But during office hours, all seats are full and four people are sitting on a seat for three,” an official said.
The railways had initially planned the resumption of services with “10-15 per cent” of the usual fleet. The number was raised to around 50 per cent following a prod from the state government.
“The railways, particularly Eastern Railway, was asked to increase the number of trains, number of ticket counters and the number of compartments. They agreed to run 95 percent of trains during rush hour from Friday. It is expected that 100 per cent suburban trains will start running in the next few days,” an official said.
