Commuters train sights on 1st class

MUMBAI: A comparative study of suburban passenger traffic on the Western Railway has revealed that more people opt to travel first class on the metropolis's lifeline.
In the last two financial years, first-class card tickets sales soared while more passengers chose to pay a little extra for a comfortable travel.
According to the study, the percentage growth in originating passengers and earnings in 2010-11 has been around 25% more than the previous fiscal in case of first-class card tickets.Even first-class season tickets have shown more than a 5% growth. The disclaimer, however, says that the number of first-class ticket travelers is much smaller than that of the second class.
WR officials attribute this trend to the city's changing demographical contours and the mushrooming of highrises in the suburbs. Said a WR official, "The number of first-class seats per train has also increased with the augmentation of close to 300 services from nine to 12-car ones since January last. Each augmented train has an additional partial first-class coach. WR carries around 33 lakh commuters daily."
"I have seen and know a lot of people who stay beyond Bandra leaving a little early so as to avoid the morning peak hour rush so that they can save time travelling to work. Even if they share a vehicle the time spent is the same," he said. Adding that with every year the trend is only getting stronger.