KOLKATA: Efforts are on to get local trains moving after a seven-month hiatus, possibly as early as next week, with 10%-15% of daily services and a gradual rise to 25% after Kali Puja/Diwali if things go according to plan.
Senior Bengal government and railway officials met at Nabanna on Monday to decide on the modalities of service resumption. State government officials, led by chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay and railway officials, representing both Eastern Railway and South-Eastern Railway, expressed their commitment to restart services that had been suspended in the third week of March ahead of the nation-wide lockdown.
At the meeting, both the government and the railways expressed health and safety concerns, given the porous nature of suburban stations that will make access control and social distancing a challenge. It was decided that the logistics of routes and safety protocols would be worked out over the next couple of days. Railway and government officials will meet again on Thursday to announce the final plan, including the day services would resume.
Railway officials said operations could commence with 10%-15% services, which translates to 150-225 trains daily. Later, efforts would be made to ramp up operations to around 25%. Till February, ER and SER together used to operate around 1,500 trains, transporting 30 lakh passengers daily. Among things discussed on Monday was the possibility of trains not stopping at all stations, although all routes were likely to open, in order to stop overcrowding. The galloping trains would stop at key stations to enable passengers to board and alight.
Officials also said that each rake, comprising 12 coaches, could ply at 50% seating capacity (600 passengers), instead of 1,200. There is no clarity yet on how many passengers will be allowed to stand in the coaches. Prior to the lockdown, over 600 passengers travelled in packed coaches during the morning and evening peak hours.
Safety concerns were discussed multiple times. Bandyopadhyay articulated the delicate nature of operations being attempted in the midst of the pandemic and termed it a sensitive trade-off between the need to ease commuter distress on one hand and maintain pandemic protocol on the other. “Resumption of train services will have an impact on public health,” he conceded, while stressing on the need for maintaining Covid protocol, including thermal screening of passengers, mandatory wearing of masks and ensuring social distancing, both in stations and on trains.
On their part, ER and SER officials emphasized the need for help from the state police to regulate commuter rush on trains. Even as technology has been harnessed to check commuter count in Metro Rail, Bandyopadhyay said virtual passes were unlikely to be used in the suburban service, as that would exclude commuters who did not have access to phones.