The Railways on Monday urged the state government to share a list of passengers, including central government employees and those from the banking sector, who are to be allowed to travel in suburban trains so that plans could be made to increase the number of services to ferry those involved in essential activities. Till now, central government and banking sector employees were not considered a part of essential services in Maharashtra. In a meeting with state officials on Monday, Railways representatives asked the state to review who all would be allowed to travel in the trains. A senior Central Railway (CR) official said, “We are working to increase the services based on a list of passengers, which will help us ascertain the number of trains required.” At present, CR runs about 130 services while Western Railway runs another 202 trains. The Railways has also urged state to expedite the process of issuing a QR code to all the passengers involved in essential services who can travel in the suburban trains. “Once QR codes are issued, the same will be linked to the reservation system to streamline the ticket-checking process,” said an official from WR. At present, Railways allows all staff falling under essential category based on their identity cards.
