KOLKATA: Eastern Railway (ER), which carries the bulk of suburban passengers in its Howrah and Sealdah divisions, with lakhs depending on these services for daily commute, restarted local train services on Sunday.
Much to the commuters’ surprise, the ticket examiners didn’t seem too interested in knowing if they had their tickets — their objective was checking if masks were on.
In an aggressive mask-up drive, around 250 “WM” (without mask) commuters were fined Rs 200 each. They paid Rs 50 less than “WT” (without ticket) ones, but the solemnity of the measure didn’t seem any less. As soon as the trains pulled in at Howrah or Sealdah stations, dozens of TTEs stationed at the gates checked passengers’ faces. The ticket inspectors said they had strict instructions not to let off a single “WM” commuter. There were heated arguments, too, with those who refused to pay up. ER spokesperson Ekalabya Chakraborty said, “We can’t run smooth services in the pandemic unless the passengers cooperate and help us abide by the rules.”
But then, Sunday’s operation was a dress rehearsal. The acid test of crowd control will begin on Monday. Green signalled by the state to run local trains for the general public with 50% occupancy after a 178-day Covid-induced hiatus, ER ran 984 trains — 350 EMUs in the Howrah division and 634 from Sealdah — on Day One. “We followed a holiday schedule today. From tomorrow, it will be like it was before the onset of Covid in March 2020, with the usual weekday timetable in place,” Chakraborty said.
Before the pandemic, ER ran 920 services in Sealdah division and more than 488 in Howrah division in both Up and Down directions. South Eastern Railway (SER) operated 190 EMUs. On Sunday, SER ran 49 local trains and is aiming for its pre-pandemic fleet in the next fortnight.
“Local trains have been running all this time as ‘specials’ for essential staff. Now everybody will troop in and choke the compartments. Who will implement the 50% seating diktat?” asked Abhijit Das, a daily commuter on the Sonarpur-Ballygunge route.
Chakraborty said, “We are continuously announcing over the public address system so that people know to travel only when necessary. We need the commuters to meet us half way to fight the contagion.”
According to ER officials, 124 passengers can usually board a local train compartment. For 50% occupancy, not more than 62 should ride and only 750 must be accommodated on a 12-coach train. But from 8am to 11am, the average number of passengers on a single train in different sections of Sealdah division is nearly 3,000 or around 250 passengers a coach. That is double the number of passengers allowed according to the state diktat.
