Railways allows women to board Mumbai local trains from tomorrow

Mumbai : In a much respite for women travellers in Mumbai, the Railways has allowed them to board the suburban local trains from Wednesday onwards.

The decision comes four days after the Maharashtra government, on October 16, issued a circular stating that women would be allowed to travel in local trains from Saturday — between 11 am and 3 pm and again from 7 pm till the end of services.

“I am happy to announce that Railways will allow women to travel on suburban trains from October 21 between 11 am to 3 pm and after 7 pm,” Railways Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted on Tuesday.

Suburban train services were shut on March 23 amid the pandemic. Partial resumption of services was announced on June 15. However, only those deemed to be essential service providers were allowed to board these trains after being allotted special passes.

At present, both WR and CR are not operating trains to their full capacity. Currently, 700 services are plying on WR against 1,316 before the lockdown. On CR, 481 services are running against the 1,719 before March.