Travelers associations and commuter welfare groups are counting down to today’s Railway Budget and what it will mean to rail users.

While many rail users of the South Central Railway network feel the budget from Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is unlikely to see new trains introduced, some are hopeful of improvements to smaller trains running across overnight distances.

Devraj Surana, a businessman and rail user said, “with proper funding the smaller trains running across overnight distances could see some upgrades.”

Today’s Railway Budget will be Banerjee’s third after a nine year break, with previous budgets paying particular attention on tourism and he home state West Bengal.

Paying particular attention to today’s proceedings will be local travelers associations, including the MMTS Travellers Association, who have been lobbying for an allocation of funds for the extension of Phase II of the MMTS network.

“Though there has been a consistent demand from several Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and NGOs for augmenting the MMTS services in terms of connectivity to the suburbs of the city, as well as increasing the frequencies, this has not been fulfilled in previous Railway budgets,” they said.

K Vijayraghavan of the Travellers Association, said “the recent keenness from the State Government, coupled with the willingness of the SCR as indicated in their proposal to the State Government for a long term solution, has rekindled the hopes of public and the groups like us.”

Vijayraghavan said that while there has been rumors of similar allocation in earlier budgets, the Rail Board has been unwilling to aid the funding of the project.

“We are hopeful that the project would finally see the light of day, and the commuting public in the Twin Cities would be able to reach their destination faster,” he said.