Good news for the 70 lakh plus people travelling on the Western and Central Railways. Very soon, these two rail authorities are going to increase the number of air-conditioned (AC) services which will certainly provide relief to passengers wanting to take the AC local. The WR will add 10 more AC train services soon.
According to sources in WR, they will be adding these services on the Churchgate-Virar route in this month itself. “We are working out the timings. We will be running them in the morning and evening peak hours,” said a senior WR official.
The WR are operating 28 services which includes 8 services on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) – Goregaon Harbour line and 20 services on the Main line. The WR will now add 10 services on the Churchgate-Virar route taking it to 30 services. These services are being operated using 4 rakes of which one rake is in maintenance and they keep rotating them.
Sources said that they will be increasing the services using the 3 AC rakes that they currently have. To add to their fleet, they will be getting one additional AC rake somewhere in July which will further ease the situation for them and in overall train operations. Senior railway officials said that Mumbai will get two new AC locals that are being readied in Integral Coach Factory in Chennai; one each is expected to go to WR and CR once they are delivered here.
This comes at a time when fares for AC local were halved and passenger demand is rising. Since May 5, the Indian Railways reduced the fares for daily journey tickets which has certainly upsurged the demand. As per figures, between May 1-4, the WR sold 9959 journey tickets. However since May 5, the demand is surging as until May 9 they have sold 18366 daily tickets which is almost double.
