Mumbai: Mid-day’s AC local plan gets thumbs up from commuters

A Delegation of passengers from Vasai and beyond suggested mid-day's idea of attaching three air-conditioned coaches to existing 12-car trains, along with 25 other recommendations, at a meeting with Western Railway (WR) managers on Monday.

Given the situation, all Churchgate-Virar trains should have 15 cars and the railways should be careful not to tamper with the timetable or replace regular trains with AC locals. After every AC train, there is a crowd on the platform, leading to a rise in accidents. Given the fact that only 30 per cent of the passengers on WR travel via AC locals, railways should find a mid-way solution to solve the issue and if possible attach three AC coaches to existing 12-car trains, making all existing trains 15-car and also accommodating AC passengers," Yeshwant Jadyar of Virar-Sawantwadi KR Passenger Association.

mid-day was the first to report, on December 29, 2017, the suggestion by Dr P C Sehgal, former managing director of Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), that air-conditioned trains should be split instead of running a complete 12-car train so that passengers of all classes can access it. Sehgal had then met the general manager of Western Railway, suggesting that the railways should think of a middle way out, instead of forcing an entirely air-conditioned train on Mumbai commuters.

Also read: Mumbai: Central Railway gets its sixth AC local train

Virar-Sawantwadi KR Passenger Association members meet with Western Railway managers on Monday

The association's other suggestions include running more ladies special trains, setting up a platform for AC trains at Virar, running Churchgate-Virar services at a frequency of 20 minutes and starting train services at about 3.30 am. WR officials said they had received a memorandum from the association and will look into what could be taken up practically.

"The existing rail corridors around Mumbai are over-saturated and railways have been working on boosting capacity, for example, between Virar and Dahanu. As the existing double-line corridor is over-saturated, it is not possible to increase the number of suburban services in this section at present. A new corridor of third and fourth railway lines parallel to the existing lines is being built for a distance of about 63 km. Also, WR is working on the sixth line between Borivli and Mumbai Central, which is to be opened in two phases over the next few years. The first stretch (Santacruz-Goregaon) has a 2023 deadline and the entire corridor is scheduled to be opened by 2025, depending on clearance of encroachments on railway land," a top official added.

At present, a fifth line exists from Borivli to Santacruz and from Mahim to Mumbai Central. The missing link between Mahim and Khar is due to a lack of space. Railways have now decided to redesign the alignment of the Harbour line in this portion to create space for the fifth and sixth lines.

Semi-AC experiment

Locals train with six AC and six non-AC coaches had been planned based on the demands of passenger associations. Then-Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had in 2018 announced that Mumbai would get semi-AC local trains in the summer of 2018-19. However, after a train arrived, problems ensued during trials.

The door-closure feature in the AC part of the train which was absent in the non-AC part led to complications, given the fact that door closure had been configured with the train's movement. Even if a single door did not shut due to a technical error, the train would not move, delaying services. Following this, it was back to the drawing board.

Policy decision on fully-AC locals

In October 2021, in a historic move, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw after a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with Mumbai officials decided, in principle, that Mumbai would get only fully-AC local trains. The new trains, which are yet to be tendered, will be of international-standard Metro-type ones that will be manufactured by private players.

Political opposition

In August 2022, AC local trains became a political tool with NCP president Sharad Pawar calling for their complete withdrawal from the city. After protests from some commuters against the new AC services on Central Railway (CR), various leaders took up the cause, meeting railway bosses and sending representations to the railway minister.

Ridership stats

As per ticketing statistics, AC local trains have been hugely popular in Mumbai with CR and WR running 56 and 48 services, respectively, with four trains each. As per August ticket figures, 1,719,659 passengers used the AC local service on WR and 1,237,579 on CR.

A brief history

The first AC local train service in Mumbai started on December 25, 2017 on WR. One AC local train had been inducted into regular service on CR's trans-harbour line but was discontinued due to the lockdown. Subsequently, AC local train services were introduced on the harbour line. But later it was found that the harbour and trans-harbour line services were not garnering enough response and all AC services were shifted to the CR main line.

30%
The share of Western Rly commuters who take AC trains