Mumbai: Passengers can upgrade first-class passes to travel in AC local trains soon

An AC local train at Dadar. File pic

Mumbai's first-class local train passengers can finally travel in AC local trains by upgrading their quarterly passes and paying the difference in fare. The fare, however, will have to be paid for the period from when the upgrade was made till the date of expiry of the pass.

Central Railway (CR) chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said, "The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) is tweaking the ticketing software and it will soon be implemented."

The railway ministry in a recent circular has said that first-class quarterly, half-yearly and yearly season tickets will be allowed to be converted into season tickets for travel in AC EMU services as per the terms and conditions. The fare difference will have to be paid for the entire duration of the pass irrespective of the number of days it is considered valid.

Also read: Mumbai: Central Railway says no more new AC locals for now

The facility will be available at booking counters and on the Universal Ticket System (UTS) app for which CRIS has been asked to make the necessary changes.

The fares for AC local single and return journey tickets had been substantially reduced since May 5, 2022. With this reduction, the minimum single journey ticket (up to 10 km) now costs R35 only. The first AC local service in Mumbai began on December 25, 2017 on Western Railway (WR).

While CR runs 56 AC services with four of its five trains in use, WR operates 48 such services with four trains in use.

After protests from commuters who illegally boarded local trains from Kalwa car shed and also those from Badlapur who were against the new AC services, various political party leaders and elected representatives made the operation of AC local train into a political issue, leading to cancellation of a few services.

104
The combined no of AC services on WR and CR