Mumbai: Soon 80 lakhs commuters travelling on suburban services will be benefited as the Indian Railways have planned to increase the speed of trains to 110kmph. This will increase the local train services by 20 per cent to the existing services. On July 30, the Railway Board officials stated they are augmenting Mumbai's suburban system. Currently the trains run at an average speed of 80-100 kmph depending on the stretch it is running. “Around 20 per cent of services will increase if we increase the speed of the train to 110km/hour, for which direction has been given to all railway officials for the upgradation of tracks,” said Rajesh Agarwal, Member of Rolling Stock. Nearly 3000 services are running on both lines, of which CR operates 1774 services while WR runs 1367 services everyday.
In the second stage they would introduce MEMU services namely between Mumbai-Nashik, Mumbai-Pune and Bhusawal-Nashik that shall cover journey in 2 hours. On a national level the Railways will also run the first train to be partially operated by private operators. V Yadav, Chairman, Railway Board said it will be the first such train which will run by September between Delhi and Lucknow. “IRCTC will be the nodal body which will give it to the private operators to decide passenger fares and take care of catering, ticket checking staff and housekeeping,” said Yadav. The Railways will also study the plan to corporatise Production Units in next three months, which will help in generating non-fare revenue for Indian railways.
