Fed up of WR getting access to all the latest technology first, CR officials have asked for air-conditioned rakes -- expected to roll into Mumbai in the coming months -- to be inaugurated on the Harbour line first
With air-conditioned locals likely to roll into the city in the next few months, they have become the subject of a tug-of-war between the Western and Central Railways, with the latter demanding that they be inducted into the Harbour line first.
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Also read: Mumbai to get 12 air-conditioned local trains
Work in progress on an AC train at Integral Coach factory in Chennai. File pic
As per initial plans, the new AC rakes, which are being manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, were supposed to come to WR, with the first AC local being run on the Churchgate-Borivli route. Sources said WR had planned to run 12 services a day with the AC rake to begin with.
The interiors of an under-construction AC coach
‘We’re here too’
Fed up of WR getting access to all the latest technology first, CR officials have asked for the AC rakes to be inaugurated on the Harbour line. “WR was the first to complete power conversion to 25000-volt AC, get the new Siemens locals in 2007 and then even the new Bombardier rakes.
All this time, CR, and especially the Harbour line, has been getting hand-me-downs and functioning with rakes that have reached the end of their working lives,” said a CR official.
This friction reached its peak in March this year, when Mumbai suburban finally inducted the ICF-manufactured Bombardier make of rakes, with WR getting first preference. This is when CR officials said that they would want the first AC local trains to run on their lines.
All set
Another argument being given by CR is that work on the Harbour line is in full swing and that it can be ready for the AC rakes by the time they are inducted, which, CR officials say will take more than a year. The conversion from 1,500-volt DC to 25,000-volt AC is underway and is set to be completed in the next year or so and the platforms are also being extended.
“Work on extending platforms for 12-car trains on Harbour line is steadily moving forward. Once that is complete, we can start thinking of additional coaches in rakes, which could be both normal or AC ones, as part of Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP)-3,” said a CR official.
Moving signals
The trump card in CR’s deck, however, is the proposal of improving the signalling system on the CST-Panvel Harbour line by removing physical signal poles along the tracks and implementing Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC), wherein the signalling system would be fitted onto the local train itself, such that it would be a ‘moving signal pole’. This first-of-its-kind implementation is being proposed for the CST-Panvel and Panvel-Thane Harbour and Trans-Harbour lines.
The system is unique as it will calculate and analyse the location and distance of each train in front and also determine speed of the train and when to apply brakes, which would be a boon during peak hours as the headway (gap between two trains) can be reduced to two minutes instead of five minutes, which will enable them to run many more trains. This, according to CR officials, will ensure that they are actually better equipped than Western Railways to run the AC trains.
Sitting pretty
A WR official, however, said the AC trains should come to them as planned and that they have even begun drawing up a timetable for them.
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