Mumbai: Western Railway to run 13 new AC local trains from Wednesday

New AC services will on all days. Pic/Rajendra Aklekar

The Western Railway (WR) will run additional AC local trains on the Mumbai suburban section starting Wednesday (November 27), replacing a few existing non-AC trains, officials said. According to the officials, the WR is introducing 13 new AC services, which will take the total number of AC services from 96 to 109 on weekdays and from 52 to 65 on the weekends (Saturdays and Sundays).

WR Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Vineet Abhishek said, "There has been a substantial rise in the number of commuters travelling by AC local trains. Hence, for the benefit of passengers and to ease the crowd, 13 more AC services are being converted by replacing existing non-AC services. These services will run as AC services on all days of the week."

He said that there will be no change in the total number of train services that are already running. Currently, 1,406 trains run on the Western line, including 109 AC services. Starting Wednesday, the first of newly introduced AC locals will run from Churchgate at 12.34 pm. Of the additional 13 services being introduced, six will be towards Churchgate and seven towards Virar.

Trains going towards Churchgate will be two services each between Virar-Churchgate and Bhayandar-Churchgate and one service each between Virar-Bandra and Bhayandar-Andheri. Similarly, trains going towards Virar will have two Churchgate-Virar services, one each between Churchgate-Bhayandar, Andheri-Virar, Bandra-Bhayandar, Mahalaxmi-Borivli, and Borivli-Bhayandar.

New rail corridors

The railways had on Monday announced new rail corridors that will feed the city's nine rail termini, which are being upgraded simultaneously. On Monday, the Union cabinet approved three multi-tracking railway projects in Maharashtra. The three projects are - Jalgaon-Manmad 4th line, Bhusawal-Khandwa 3rd and 4th line, and Manikpur-Iradatganj 3rd line.

These projects aim to improve railway infrastructure across the state. The proposed multi-tracking projects will ease operations and reduce congestion, leading to much-needed infrastructure development on some of the busiest sections. Mumbai has eight rail terminal stations, including Mumbai CSMT, Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra, Kurla LTT, Kalyan Vasai, and Panvel, and the ninth at Jogeshwari is under construction.