Mumbai: Western Railway sees slight dip in suburban train ridership

Have the five functional Metro lines in Mumbai started making an impact The cityrsquos chronically overcrowded Western Railway WR suburban network may finally be showing signs of easing with officials reporting a marginal decline in ridership that they believe is partly due to commuters shifting to the expanding Metro networkWhile the trend could provide muchneeded relief to packed local trains in the short term railway authorities caution that it may not be permanent especially as WR prepares to induct more airconditioned local services that could attract passengers back to the suburban systemRamashray Pandey general manager Western Railway PicBy Special ArrangementWR General Manager Ramashray Pandey said ldquoWR runs 1414 local services and the 145 AC services constitute just 10 per cent of them We will ensure that in future when AC services are added they donrsquot run backtoback Moreover there are plans to increase services proportionally as nonAC services grow There is an independent project to get 238 AC locals for Mumbai by the Mumbai Railway Vikas CorporationrdquoTeen Sawaal with WR GM Ramashray Pandey1 How is WR using passenger data to redesign timetablesWRrsquos Mumbai division uses ridership and operational data from its annual timetable revision cycle to identify capacity gaps For instance in October 2024 it added 12 new services and upgraded 10 trains from 12car to 15car rakes raising daily services from 1394 to 1406 Routelevel demand analysis also drives reallocation decisions such as shifting rakes from the CSMTBorivli Harbour route to the busier ChurchgateVirar corridor to better match passenger load2 Could wearable technology drones or AIpowered cameras help detect trespassing in real timeWR has deployed over 4500 AIenabled facial recognition cameras at entryexit points platforms and ticket counters across its suburban network assisting RPF and GRP in crime detection crowd management and tracing missing persons Drone surveillance has also been integrated as part of WRrsquos enhanced security framework developed with RPF GRP and intelligence agencies supplementing over 3000 CCTV cameras mdash 305 of them inside trains mdash under the Integrated Security System3 Has climate change altered the way WR plans for monsoon operationsDrawing lessons from past years WR now operates in mission mode for premonsoon work including raising lowlying tracks in vulnerable sections This year the plan included building a 45 km retaining wall along the VasaiVirar corridor and installing SCADA Supervisory Control and Data Acquisitionbased waterlevel monitoring on four strategic bridges with realtime SMS alerts fixing problems at Matunga WR has also significantly scaled up its floodresponse infrastructure deploying 126 highcapacity dewatering pumps 40 flood gauges six automated rain gauges and dronebased culvert inspectionsMetro impactThe Red Line 7 and Yellow Line 2A are on either side of the Western Line Officials believe that these corridors offer improved connectivity airconditioned travel and reduced travel times on several routes encouraging some commuters to shift modes The impact is particularly visible on corridors where Metro lines run parallel to or complement the suburban railway networkDrop in numbersAccording to officials WR recorded a negative suburban growth of 02 per cent in 2025 The trend appears to have intensified in 2026 with the first two months showing a decline of around 2 per cent in suburban patronageTransit evolutionThe emerging suburban railway figures suggest that travel patterns are evolving as the cityrsquos multimodal transport network expands Railway authorities are closely monitoring the trend and assessing its longterm implications for service planning and capacity utilisation