Seat to make room for more standees on WR

MUMBAI: Western Railway (WR) plans to reduce the number of seats in local trains and create more standing room for commuters. It would mean eight seats lesser in each general and first-class compartment, but a lot more standing space and also decongest the door area.
The plan involves reducing one seat each from just near the door so that commuters can enter and exit comfortably and enable more people to travel.However it will not extend to the ladies, handicap, luggage and senior citizen coaches.
WR officials said this new seating arrangement would reduce the number of seats in 12-car locals by 100 and in nine-car rakes by 72 but increase the number of commuters by around 300-400 per train.
Officials said the idea came after a letter 10 days ago from Shailesh Goyal, member of the National Railway Users Consultative Committee, highlighting the difficulty in boarding trains during peak hours due to overcrowding. It mentioned that passengers often stood at the door and footboard blocking the way, even though there was space in the middle of the coach.
"Such an arrangement will mean commuters won't have to stand at the entrance and can move inside the coach. The project should be done on an experimental basis," Goyal told TOI.
Chief PRO, WR, Sharat Chandrayan said WR is studying the feasibility of this seating arrangement. "There have been many complaints that commuters lean against the seat support making it very difficult for people to board the train. There have also been complaints that commuters stand at the door several stations before they have to alight, not allowing others to get off." He said the letter has been sent to the general manager and chief commercial manager, adding the Railway Board's decision was not mandatory.
P C Sehgal, managing director, Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation, said it was a very good step and if accepted would lead to a more comfortable trip as a space of 4 sq m would be created.
Central Railway general manager, Kul Bhushan, who is also looking after WR, said: "Let WR introduce coaches with fewer seats first, we will then examine if CR can also do the same."
In a nine-car local total seating is 950
In a 12-car local total seating is 1270
If lateral seating is introduced, in a nine-car local total seating would be 360 and the total capacity 4,500. In a 12-car local the seating would be 480 while the total capacity would be 6,000.
If one seat is reduced per seat near the door in every general class, then the total seating in a nine-car train would reduce by 72 and in a 12-car reduce by around 100. The standing capacity would increase by around 300 to 400 people.