Mumbai: Western Railway’s AC milestone stings CR travellers

Central Railway has no plans to introduce new AC local trains. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

As Western Railway reached a milestone with the AC local passenger figure crossing the 1-crore mark in six months, disappointed commuters on Central Railway reiterated their demand for more air-conditioned trains. Though CR doesn't plan on introducing new AC locals, it has promised to address other issues - last-minute cancellations and ‘unwanted elements' aboard trains.

Western Railway on Thursday announced that its passenger numbers on air-conditioned local trains crossed the 1-crore mark from April 1. Whereas, Central Railway (CR) registered 72.32 lakh commuters aboard its AC local services from April 1 to Thursday (October 27). WR runs 1,383 suburban services in Mumbai and 79 of them are AC, while CR operates 1,810 suburban services but has only 56 AC services. Meanwhile, WR plans to add 10 more services soon.

CR commuters have demanded more ticket checking on AC locals

AC commuters on CR told mid-day on Friday that they are feeling cheated due to poor frequency of the air-conditioned services and cancelled trips, because of which they miss their train during peak hours on CR main line. In fact, AC local commuters on CR have started a petition and signature campaigns on trains to get more air-conditioned services, but the authorities have no plans yet.

Also Read: Western Railway's suburban AC crosses 1 crore commuters in 2022-23, hits new milestone

"It is our earnest request to CR to introduce an additional AC train commencing from Dombivli to CSMT," Dombivli resident N Y Joshi, who started the petition, said. "There has been a steady demand for AC trains on CR, and where there is a demand, there should be supply. CR should work out a way to introduce more services," said Prashant Panigrahi, a regular AC train commuter.

Western Railway has 79 AC local train services. Pic/Nimesh Dave

However, CR, which withdrew 10 new AC services in August following protest from Kalwa and Badlapur commuters and also under political pressure, has no plans to add new AC locals to its fleet. Netra Parekh, a commuter, told mid-day, "There are a number of last-minute cancellations of AC trains, and then they are replaced with regular trains, causing us problems. We have bought AC season ticket passes for a reason and if CR is unable to sustain a good service, they better discontinue it."

"Western Railway has got passenger numbers because its services are on time, unlike CR's. And, I have never come across an AC local being cancelled on WR, barring the two days in the first week of October when they were adapting to the new timetable," said another commuter Joshua Mendonca. Yash Thakar, who also prefers AC locals, said, "There is abysmally low ticket checking in AC trains, and because of that, there are unwanted elements and hawkers many times. It is our request to CR to step up checking inside trains, too."

N Y Joshi and Joshua Mendonca

Speaking with mid-day, a CR spokesperson assured to address some of the concerns of the commuters.On a ddressing the last-minute cancellations issue, the spokesperson said, "We received a spare train early October, which we will use in case the existing one has any glitches. Instead of cancelling the service or replacing it with a non-AC train, we will send the spare AC local." "More ticket-checking personnel would be posted aboard AC local trains for random checks of the passengers," he added.

56
No of AC services that CR runs