RailEnquiry

After adopting newer strategies to seek out ticketless travellers last month, the railway authority recorded its highest figure collected through fines in a single month.
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The month of November was definitely an earning month for the Central Railway, with Rs 2.86 crore collected as fines from ticketless passengers, the highest monthly figure recorded by the authority. CR authorities attributed the record earnings to the new strategies being followed by the department of ticket-checking staff.

R officials said that though passengers don’t notice ticket-checking staff at railway stations, they are present and catch passengers covertly. “We have changed our strategies for catching ticketless travelers in suburban and non-suburban sections and the result has been very positive. We have had huge earnings,” said a CR official. In November, ticket-checking staff registered 65,187 cases for ticketless travellers and earned 2.86 crore in the Mumbai division. There are 38 lakh CR passengers who commute every day, for which 1,200 ticket-checking staff are deployed at stations across the city.

According to the railway officials, earlier passengers would recognise ticket-checking staff at railway stations and deliberately avoid them. “The ticket-checking staff were made to wear uniforms and groups were placed at every railway stations. However, passengers had developed routes to exit stations to avoid getting caught. Now, the staff are not in uniform and a huge number are deployed at one particular station covering 100 per cent area and every single passenger,” informed the official.

A fine of Rs 250 and the difference between tickets is collected if a passenger is carrying a valid ticket but travels beyond the destination. However, if a passenger is not carrying a ticket, the full fare from the originating station and a fine of Rs 250 is collected from them. Atul Rane, deputy commercial manager, CR, said, “This is the highest earning that we have earned in the Mumbai division in a month. We achieved such a high figure after changing our strategies and from the staff’s hard work.”

Meanwhile, Western Railways registered 1.64 lakh cases of ticketless passengers and recovered Rs 5.84 crore in fines from the entire Western region.

65,187
The number of ticket-less travelers caught in November.