The decision was taken after a delegation of corporators and residents of Matheran held talks with the railway's deputy general manager in Pune on Saturday, a day after 1,000 locals staged a demonstration at the Matheran railway station. They were protesting against a decision taken on Friday to reserve all the seats on each of the three mini-trains that service the sleepy resort in Raigad district. The mob had laid seige to the station at around 1 pm, when news of the reservation quota spread. The protest also disrupted train services by about two hours.

Resentment over an inccrease in the reserved quota to promote tourism had been building ever since theCentral Railway increased the number of reserved seats from 30 to 120. The locals point out that blocking these seats places them at a serious disadvantage as the train is the resort's lifeline.

A reserved seat costs Rs 39 (including Rs 15 as reservation charge) for the 22-km-long journey up the hillslope. Second, the 6,000-strong local populace has to often make unscheduled trips, which would have been curtailed.