Less takers for trains post Diwali

Kolkata: Even as the frequency of services were increased to 95 per cent following Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's intervention to cope up with rush of passengers during peak hours, the overall passenger count has dropped in both trains and metro services over the last two days.

According to the Railway authorities, the trains aren't getting crowded like the pre-Covid times.

The increased frequency of services has led to proportionate distribution of passengers in trains. However, the passenger count decreased after Kali Puja and Diwali. "On November 17, we ran 549 local trains in the Sealdah Division and the total passenger count was 5,91,984. On November 16, we ran 540 local trains in the Sealdah Division and the total passenger count was 6,14,441," said an official of ER.

The suburban services had resumed on November 11 with 615 and 81 trains under Eastern Railway (ER) and South Eastern Railway (SER) respectively. On November 17, the SER increased the EMU services from 81 to 95.

Previously, over 1,400 trains were run by ER and SER from Sealdah and Howrah stations respectively.

On Kali Puja day, the passenger count on the North- South and East West corridors of the metro was 40, 755 and 218 respectively. However, the daily passenger count on both the corridors is around 97, 000 on a daily basis.

On November 17, passenger count on the North- South and East West corridors was 91, 286 and 393 respectively. On November 16, passenger count on the North- South corridor and East West corridor was 60, 785 and 310 respectively.

Earlier, Kolkata Metro Railway had decided to run 152 trains each on Kali Puja and Bhatridwitiya from 8.00 am to 10.00 pm instead of the scheduled 190 services.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday night, a goods train hit a wall in Farakka.