Central Railway Introduces Staggered Timings To Reduce Overcrowding In Mumbai Local Trains

Amid the continuous casualty involving daily commuters in local travel, the Central Railway has started staggered timings for its employees in its Mumbai office to eliminate rush during peak hours and prevent incidents of passengers falling off crowded trains.

According to a Government Railway Police (GRP) report, 571 people died until September 2023 due to trespassing as against 654 deaths between January 2022 and December 2022 for the same reason.

The data based on GRP report said 346 people fell down from running trains and died until September 2023 as against 510 deaths recorded from January 2022 to December 2022.

While one commuter died after hitting the pole in a moving train until September 2023, five deaths took place during January 2022-December 2022 for pole hitting incidents.

Five commuters had died due to fall in gap in running trains upto September 2023 two died for the same reason in January-December 2022 period.

According to the data, 307 deaths involving running trains reported upto September 2023 due to other reasons, 414 died in 2022 for the same reasons.

According to the railways, over 60 per cent of deaths on the rail tracks happen due to trespassing on the railway lines.

The Central Railway, in its Mumbai office, has started staggered timings for its employees since 1 November, said Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Rajnish Goyal.

A major motivating factor for the DRM was the number of accidents that happen on the local railway from overcrowding.

Meanwhile, Central Railway in Mumbai has implemented staggered working hours for its staff to reduce overcrowding on local trains.

The new working hours of 9.30am to 5.45pm and 11.30am to 7.45pm were due to begin in December, but were brought forward to 1 November.

Goyal organised meetings with employees, unions and fellow rail officers to ensure the changes were feasible.

He also plans to write to government organisations and private companies to encourage them to adopt staggered working hours.