Western Railway (WR)'s suburban network, considered the most crowded in the world, for the first time in over a decade has shown a fall in passengers for the financial year that just ended on March 31.
Statistics show that between April 2013 and March 2014, WR's suburban system carried INR 128.11 crore passengers against INR 129.49 crore for the same period between 2012 and 2013, a sizable INR 1.38 crore less. In sheer terms, WR officials said, the drop was around 38,000 passengers every day.
The last time WR's suburban system saw such a worrying fall was in the financial year 2002-03 when passengers dropped by a whopping INR 3.24 crore.
The drop has meant that WR could not achieve the passenger target of INR 134.53 crore people set by the railway board by a substantial INR 6.42 crore passengers. The fall has also meant that WR missed its target revenue for the suburban network - pegged at INR 715.91 crore - by INR 22.91 crore. It earned just INR 693 crore for the financial year that ended on March 31.
WR's internal analysis of the drop in passengers this year has zeroed in on an unusually high number of people who went for vacation outside Mumbai in May and June last year as the primary cause. The holiday theory seems logical because May and June saw a drastic drop in the renewal of season passes, which, railway officials say, is a sure sign of the fact that a pass holder is out of town.
An official said that "The number of season passes getting renewed returned to normal in July, which meant holidaying Mumbaikars had returned to the city."
The strike by traders opposing the local body tax between May 6 and 21 last year also contributed to the drop, railway analysis stated, and this in turn reduced ticket sales.