Mumbai: Heat over seat rises on Central Railway’s AC locals

Users from Kalyan were upset after a few commuters from Dombivli took a return train and blocked their seats

A fight over seats on a Central Railway AC local on Monday morning has led to the demand for more such services. With 60 air-conditioned train trips daily, the CR Mumbai now runs the highest number of AC local trains in any zone of the Indian Railways. Trouble started after a few commuters from Dombivli took a train to Kalyan so that they could block their seats when the train departed for CSMT. This led to an argument between the Kalyan and Dombivli commuters and it quickly devolved into a scuffle.

"It does not look good that commuters on an AC local should have to put up a fight like this. After the argument and fight, the police came on board and noted down the contact numbers of the commuters," said a user of the AC service. Commuters from Dombivli have been complaining since their much-patronised 7.47-am AC Dombivli CSMT slow local was cancelled after the new Thane-Diva lines were launched.

"When the 7.47 am AC Dombivli CSMT local train was running, many commuters were coming from Kalyan and getting into the AC train from Kopar or Dombivli. We never fought with them. In fact, we were happy that they took pains to board the AC local. Do they know that the 7.47 am AC local, which was cancelled, has affected so many commuters who must reach their office between 9 am and 9.30, and senior citizen commuters," said a Dombivli commuter on the AC local.

"The local train is for everyone. When one has a season pass to and fro, they have the right to go up and down as the railways has no rules regarding such travel patterns," she added. As per railway data, Dombivli has 80,637 AC commuters, the most on CR, followed by Thane at 70,550 and Kalyan with 60,633 users.

Of the AC services on CR's lines, the mainline one has the highest passenger average per service at 415 followed by the one on the CSMT-Goregaon route at 235. The CSMT-Panvel service has an average of 90 passengers per service. CR's chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said the AC local train services on all sectors have been steadily getting a positive response and they have a long-term plan to improve the quality and add more services.