Services to resume on trans-harbour line for now, but, too few services has meant that willing passengers are avoiding it; WR says it is planning to ramp up numbers, but CR says can’t replace regular locals on the saturated system
CR started 10 air-conditioned local train services on December 17, last year. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
With the rising temperatures, the number of passengers lining up for AC local trains seems to be increasing and with such demands on the rise, Central Railway (CR) announced the restoration of AC locals on the trans-harbour line, on Wednesday. However, the current skeletal service seems to be the main factor behind people avoiding it. While CR runs 10 AC locals on the main line, on the trans-harbour line, it runs 16. Western Railway (WR) runs 12 services on weekdays.
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Rise in bookings
Since ticket bookings have been allowed, there also has been a significant rise in the number of commuters booking AC train tickets, but the most common complaint remains that they are too few and that they are forced to adjust to the trains’ schedules.
“For example, on CR’s main line, there is just one CSMT-bound train in the morning rush hours for all commuters beyond Kurla,” a commuter said. Of the 10 services on CR’s main line, four are in the morning and six in the evening. Of the four, just two are in the CSMT-bound rush hour direction, of which one is Kurla-CSMT at 5.42 am and the other is Dombivli-CSMT at 7.47 am.
The other two morning services are return journeys from Mumbai CSMT, which are of no practical use. So, if one misses the morning CSMT-bound train, there is no other AC train in that direction.
How, when to scale up?
On the other hand, WR has said that it is planning to increase the number of AC locals on the Mumbai suburban network after a recent survey revealed that passengers want to travel on them. A passenger survey conducted by railways showed that 70 per cent of the passengers wanted authorities to increase the number of AC coaches on local trains, WR General Manager Alok Kansal had told media.
CR General Manager Anil Kumar Lahoti said that as a policy decision, it has been decided that no AC local train will be started by replacing existing services. “As per a survey and talks with passenger associations, the common mandate seems that second class and regular train services should not be disturbed and we will maintain that. We look forward to introducing more AC locals once the newly-commissioned Thane-Diva lines are functional as it would let the existing network add more trips on existing lines,” he said.
As per WR statistics, 2,775 new passengers have taken season ticket pass for AC local between August 30 and October 3. As per CR statistics, 40 to 50 AC local passengers have been added daily in the past 15 days.
Uran line by 2022
Central Railway General Manager Anil Kumar Lahoti on Wednesday said that the piece of land for the pending stretch of Uran railway line had been handed over to the railways and that the line will be commissioned by September 2022. “The land has some rocky strata, but we will try and get the line commissioned by September 2022,” he added.
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