Mumbai suburban commuters start media drive about late trains
Around 20,000 commuters, including vegetable vendors, government employees, nurses, students , use the two trains everyday to travel to their workplaces.
Palghar: A group of commuters from Dahanu, Palghar, Saphale, Vasai and Virar, forming a group called Dahanu Vaitarna Pravasi Sevabhavi Sanshta (DVPSS), took to social media to post about trains running late on the Western Railway (WR) continuously since the past one month.
Mahesh Patil, member, DVPSS, said, “Since the past one month, the two trains - 59024 Up Valsad Fast Passenger and 12922 Up Surat Mumbai Flying Rani Super Fast Express, would be late by an average of 30 minutes everyday. This would make the commuters travelling from Dahanu to Virar invariably late for work. Hence, we decided to complain to WR on Twitter, Facebook,via SMS, and on a government portal, pgportal.gov.in.”
“We would get routine replies of “action is being taken”, but we continued to post everyday,” said Patil.
Around 20,000 commuters, including vegetable vendors, government employees, nurses, students , use the two trains everyday to travel to their workplaces.
“All of us were fed up of reaching our workplaces late everyday, so we decided to take up the issue with WR. The problem arose because superfast trains like the Rajdhani Express would be given preference in the morning, while the two trains would be put up at siding platforms either at Palghar or Dahanu. The trains would not be allowed to proceed till the Rajdhani Express passes through,” said Hitesh Patil, another commuter.
When the Rajdhani Express is late, these trains are delayed further, which hassles commuters. Sometimes the trains also run late owing to foggy weather or chain pulling, he said.
The group finally received a response from WR on December 14. Responding to a tweet sent by the group, Mukul Jain, divisional regional manager, Mumbai, said that WR will be conducting a study on the punctuality of the two trains for one week.
“Surprisingly, after the DRM’s tweet, the trains are now arriving at Palghar on time, which is a good sign,” said Hitesh.