Two days of disruption in railway services, induced by heavy rain, has seen Western Railway’s mobile alert service finally catch on with passengers. The number of subscribers shot up by 557 on July 4 and 6, when heavy rain upset suburban services.

The service, introduced last August 15, updates passengers on the status of trains through SMS. For all its efforts at selling the service, WR had seen a rise of only 7,000 subscribers between last September and the beginning of this month. The sudden spurt on the two rainy days now leaves the total at over 57,500, including 29,400 city commuters.

The spurt notwithstanding, it is not that the response is overwhelming. The 57,500 represent only a fraction of the 3.5 million who travel by trains in Mumbai daily. The spurt has, nevertheless, encouraged the authorities.

“This was the time when we decided to send commuters updates and alerts on services. This was to help them decide whether to venture out or stay indoors,” said WR spokesman Shyam Sundar Gupta.

“The service is an attempt to reach passengers directly with the help of modern technology,” he added.