Railways faces heat over AC local trains, suspends 10 services after another commuter stir

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On Wednesday, commuters staged agitation against the Railways at Badlapur, a distant suburb of Mumbai, demanding restoration of non-air conditioned suburban trains as authorities announced the suspension of 10 AC services introduced just last week from Thursday.

The introduction of AC services on the suburban section of the Central Railway (CR) has been facing resistance from a section of commuters.
A group of commuters gathered at Badlapur station in Thane district at around 10.30 am and raised slogans demanding that AC suburban trains be replaced with non-air-conditioned ones.

However, there was no disruption in train services as a large number of police personnel were deployed at the spot.

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In the backdrop of the agitation, which comes days after a similar protest at another station in Thane district last week, the CR announced the temporary suspension of 10 recently introduced AC trains.

A message on the Twitter handle of the Railways said, "10 more AC local services were introduced from 19.08.2022. In view of various representations from passengers, these 10 services are temporarily suspended from 25.08.2022."

These 10 AC services will run now as non-AC ones with existing schedule, the CR said.

The date of introduction of AC services will be informed after a review, it added.

On Friday last, hundreds of commuters squatted on railway tracks near Kalwa station in the Thane district, blocking the path of an empty AC local train for 20 minutes to demand the resumption of a non-AC service in the morning peak hours.

After the protest, local NCP legislator and former Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Jitendra Awhad had taken up the issue with the Railways.

Two days ago, the MLA from Kalwa-Mumbra had said the decision to replace the existing non-AC locals with the AC trains was causing hardships to commuters.

Commuters say they do not get entry into packed trains and to add to their woes non-AC locals were converted into air-conditioned ones.

In a related development, Shrikant Shinde, the Kalyan Lok Sabha MP and son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, on Wednesday met CR General Manager Anil Kumar Lahoti and discussed the issue with him.

Later, in an official release, Shrikant Shinde said the Railways had assured him they would look into his demand to review the introduction of AC services.

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