The railways’ idea to direct private and public offices to stagger their work timings in order to reduce the footfalls and extend the peak commuting hours at the railway stations in the city has been accepted by the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Monday.
The plan, which is still in the ideating phase, will aim to strike a dialogue between the railways, the State government, offices of the State and the Central government, private corporates, markets, and unions to adjust their hours of operation so that the peak hour rush gets distributed, easing out the density of passengers in the trains and on the stations, both in the morning and evening. The duration of the peak timings as of now is 8 am to 11.30 am and 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm. The plan looks to extend these timings by over an hour.
The railway minister was addressing a media conference about addition of various amenities at the railway stations when he said: “Owing to the rush on railway stations, a joint action between railways and state government will be done towards staggering the timings of offices to give immediate relief to passengers."
He added that there is a need to manage the demand of railway services by commuters, as the supply of services provided by the railways has a limitation. “A supply side solution means we keep adding capacity, but everywhere in the world there is a limitation to that. So a demand side solution will come in the form of how you can manage the demand; the peak demand that causes all this rush,” Mr. Prabhu said. He also said Divisional Railway Managers and General Managers of both the Western and Central Railways will develop a transport development plan with city planners and the municipal corporation to focus on medium and long-term advancements in the city’s transport services.
The minister is also planning to hold a meeting with technical planners from various nations and the railway board on September 2 in Delhi, and the point of emphasis will be redevelopment of railway stations across the country’s rail network.
