In Mumbai, ticket checking is underway at various locations. The Central Railway collected a Rs. 45,705 fine from 150 ticketless passengers in one day, reported Mumbai Live. When the footfall of ticketless travellers increases, it causes inconvenience to the ones travelling with a ticket.
With 1,810 services per day, the Mumbai Suburban Network of Central Railway transports about 3.9 million passengers daily. Among these, Central Railway transports around 76,836 passengers daily via 66 AC local services.
Last week the Central Railway stated that Mumbai Division's ticket-checking teams identified and punished 81,709 instances of irregular travel by AC residents during the fiscal year 2024–2025 (up to January 2025), recovering Rs. 2.70 crore in penalties.
In contrast, 35,885 incidents of irregular travel resulted in a penalty of Rs. 1.19 crore during the same time last fiscal year, a staggering increase of about 127%.
In January 2025, an amount of Rs. 27.82 lakh was collected from 8,535 travellers. In the same month last year, Rs.11.83 lakh was collected from 3,511 ticketless travellers. The numbers show an increase of over 135% in revenue and over 140% in number of people travelling without tickets.
The Central Railway's Mumbai Division has started several projects, such as a special AC Task Force for suburban trains, to improve customer experiences and reduce erratic travel in AC locals. For support during busy hours, a WhatsApp complaint number (7208819987) has also been made available. Additionally, a Special Monitoring Team has been established to supervise irregular travel issues.