More air-conditioned ''local'' trains for Mumbai

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, September 22

Encouraged by the response towards the lone air-conditioned “local” train in Mumbai, the Western Railways will be rolling out nine more such trains on its Mumbai suburban line by next summer.

According to WR officials, the second air-conditioned “local” will arrive in January 2019 and the remaining every few days. "We plan to have to an air-conditioned service every few minutes by this summer," a WR official said. The new AC trains will have a number of improvements based on the feedback received from passengers who travelled by the single such train that has been in operation since December 2017.

WR's General Manager AK Gupta told reporters recently that the new air-conditioned coaches were being built by the Integral Coach Factory with equipment from the public sector Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL).

The lone AC train has a seating capacity of 1,028 and can carry 5,964 passengers. According to railway officials with ten AC trains in operation fare charts for this class of passengers would be rationalised in order make it more popular among people.

Meanwhile, passengers associations in the distant suburbs of Mumbai already feel that the railways would replace the number of regular trains with the air-conditioned rakes. "Most passengers who travel by Second Class find travel by the air-conditioned coaches unaffordable. Trains just before and after the lone air-conditioned rake are more jam packed," says Vivek Mishra, of the Nala Sopara Railway Passengers' Association.

Railway officials feel that the fares for the air-conditioned “local” trains should be pegged slightly higher than the first class fare, so that it does not pinch commuters much. However such a decision would have to be taken by the Railway Board, a senior WR official said.