The Western Railway is planning to introduce around 20 air-conditioned and 10 non-air-conditioned local services from October 2022 on its suburban corridor.
Currently, WR runs 1375 local services in its suburban corridor, including 48 air-conditioned local services. A senior officer of WR said, "Keep in mind the convenience of non-air-conditioned comments. We are planning to introduce some more non-AC services, which will be incorporated into the new time table likely to come up in October 2022."
When asked about the opposition of air-conditioned locals on the central railway, an official of WR said, "Suburban sections of both zonal railways have different types of characteristics. Their passenger profiles are also different." Hence, comparing the suburban sections of both zonal railways is not correct.
Further speaking about the details of these services, the officials said, "Most of these services will be introduced on Churchgate Virar section. As of now, on average, 30 lakh passengers daily use the local services operated by Western Railway."
On Western Railway, the daily average number of air-conditioned local train passengers is nearly one lakh, whereas on CR, the daily average number of AC local passengers is less than 50,000.
Currently, CR operates a total of 1810 local services, out of which 56 are air-conditioned, while WR's total number of local services is 1375, including 48 air-conditioned local services.
The total number of (AC + Non AC) average daily commuters on CR is around 35 lakh, while WRs' daily total (AC + Non AC) average daily passengers is around 30 lakh.
Earlier on Wednesday, Central Railway decided to reduce its AC local services to keep in mind the demand of its non-AC local passengers.
Non-AC local passengers were unhappy with the decision to replace 10 AC local services by AC local services from August 19th. After that, not only were non-AC local passengers protesting, but they also handed over a written memorandum to the railway authorities.
In the meantime, on Thursday, former minister and NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad met with WR authorities and requested the introduction of more non-AC local services on WR too.
Shailesh Goyal, former member of the National Railway Users' Consultative Council, welcomed the move, saying, "On WR air-conditioned local services are running at full capacity, especially during rush hours." Goyal also welcomed the plan to introduce a few more non-AC local services on WR.
Not only in WR, but on CR, passengers are also divided on the issue of the withdrawal of 10 AC local services.
"If those services were introduced from Kalyan and Dombivli, then the situation would be different," said Lata Argade, Secretary of the Suburban Railway Passenger Association of CR. "Why CR introduced AC local service from Badlapur at the cost of non-AC local (replacement) I still do not understand," she added.
When asked about the difference between the CR and WR suburban sections, Siddhesh Desai, a passenger activist, said, "In Western lines, these impact of AC locals is very low due to high frequency of normal locals and very low interruption of mails compared to Central Line. The gap between the new normal local increase drastically in case of diversified Karjat Kasara lines."
Shailesh Goyal, former member of the National Railway Users' Consultative Council, welcomed the move, saying, "On WR air-conditioned local services are running at full capacity, especially during rush hours."
Goyal also welcomed the plan to introduce a few more non-AC local services on WR.
