The Central Railway (CR) on Monday inaugurated the newly constructed building of Combined Crew Running Room and Booking Lobby (Main Line) at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. The inauguration was done by Central Railway general manager Anil Kumar Lahoti.
The CR has built one of the biggest running rooms (restrooms for motorman, guard and loco pilots) on its railway network with modern facilities, including a well-equipped gymnasium.
The newly commissioned G+5 building has a capacity of 192 beds, which is the highest on Central Railway, with separate rooms and washrooms for lady crew members. Railway officials said the running room would provide better comfort for the running staff, ultimately improving safety as it will help enhance their overall performance or efficiency, including alertness.
"Running rooms will be used by the running crew like Loco pilot, assistant loco pilot, goods guard. They will take rest after completion of duty or sign-off, before picking up the next duty or sign-on," said a CR officer.
The running room is associated with the Railway Crew lobby, where the crew (motorman, guard and loco pilots) gets all the essential information related to the train running. In addition to air-conditioned rooms for sleeping, the running rooms also provide subsidised meals.
Packed meals are also supplied if the crew is required to pick up trains at odd timings of the day. Apart from the newly constructed running room, the Mumbai Division of CR currently has three running rooms at CSMT, Kalyan and Panvel.
The capacity of the old running room at CSMT is 150 beds, while the one at Panvel has 80 beds and Kalyan has 70 beds. "It was a long pending demand of motormen to improve the poor condition of running rooms of Mumbai Division," said Motorman AK Dubey.
