Central Railway forced to operate 34-year-old trains at present
Mumbai : After Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s visit to Mumbai on Saturday, Central Railway (CR) is expecting a nod from the Railway Board (RB) within a week allowing them to switch over to alternating current (AC) from direct current (DC).
The green signal from the RB to switch from DC to AC would mean that CR will be able to get additional trains from its counterpart, Western Railway (WR). CR will also be able to save heavily on electricity bills by switching to 25,000 kv of AC between Thane and CST. At present, CR is in a fix and is compelled to run trains which are over 34 years of age as they can be operated on both DC traction as well as AC traction.
Despite completing the conversion, they could not be switched to AC traction as the height of certain bridges was too low and not according to the Schedule of Dimension (SoD) which is designed for the rail network across India. The railway officials had asked the RB to consider Mumbai as a special case and relax the rules, thus allowing them to switch.
The request seems to have been considered as the General Manager of CR, Sunil Kumar Sood, said, “We are expecting a response from the Railway Board by Tuesday. We have already completed the technical work and are just waiting for the response from the board.” When asked if the response is positive, he said, “The response seems to be positive.”
However, CR commuters will not get to travel in the new Bombardier rakes (in pic), as the new rakes will be restricted to Western Railway. In an attempt to create uniformity in the types of trains used, the railways has decided to use Bombardier on WR while their Siemens rakes will be allotted to CR after the conversion.
AC trains in October?
If Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is to be believed, Mumbai might get its first air-conditioned local by October. Responding to queries put forth by reporters, Prabhu said, “We will get the air-conditioned locals before Eid, which is around October.” The first AC local will run between Churchgate and Borivali on WR.
