In a concerning trend, over 150 passengers are being caught daily for traveling without valid tickets on the air-conditioned suburban trains of Western Railway (WR) in the Mumbai Central division. Between April and October of this year, WR's ticket checking teams identified more than 34,800 instances of ticketless travel in AC suburban trains, underlining a growing issue with fare evasion on these premium services.
Western Railway operates 96 suburban services daily on weekdays, catering to an average of 1.20 lakh passengers.
"Ticketless travel not only affects railway revenues but also disrupts the convenience and safety of genuine commuters," said a senior official from Western Railway. "We urge all passengers to adhere to ticketing norms and avoid unnecessary fines and penalties."
According to sources, festive seasons of Dussehra and Diwali saw an uptick in ticketless travel attempts, but the railway’s ticket-checking teams remained vigilant. In October alone, WR collected fines worth Rs 12.10 crore, contributing to a total of Rs 80.56 crore in penalties for the period from April to October. This amount includes Rs 26.60 crore from the Mumbai Suburban section.
As part of their ongoing efforts to curb fare evasion, Western Railway has organized multiple ticket-checking drives throughout the year. These efforts resulted in the detection of 2.09 lakh ticketless or irregular passengers, including unbooked luggage cases, recovering Rs 12.10 crore in fines in the month of October alone. Its also includes over 93,000 passengers were caught traveling without tickets in suburban trains of Mumbai Central division, leading to collection of Rs 3.90 crore as fine.
"To prevent unauthorized entry into AC local trains, frequent surprise ticket-checking drives are carried out. These drives have led to the penalization of almost 34,800 unauthorized passengers between April and October, with a total of over Rs 1.15 crore in fines collected" said an official of WR.