Mumbai suburban Trains are going to Convert to AC trains

Mumbai suburban Trains are going to Convert to AC trains

The railways have planned to convert all local trains on Mumbai’s suburban train network to air-conditioned (AC) trains.

The decision was taken by the Railway Board (RB) the apex body of all zonal railways, after consulting Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation(MRVC), Central and Western Railway officials on Tuesday. 

The local train Fares are also likely to be reduced and will be based on the fare structure of metros.

 The railway ministry has also put the plans to run semi-AC local trains (in which a few AC coaches were to be attached to local trains in addition to current first and second-class coaches) on hold.

 Mumbai suburban Trains are going to Convert to AC trains

The railways have planned to convert all local trains on Mumbai’s suburban train network to air-conditioned (AC) trains.

The decision was taken by the Railway Board; the apex body of all zonal railways, after consulting Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation(MRVC), Central and Western Railway officials on Tuesday. 

fares of the Mumbai local trains 

The fares of the local trains are also likely to be reduced and will be based on the fare structure of metros. The railway ministry has also put the plans to run semi-AC local trains (in which a few AC coaches were to be attached to local trains in addition to current first and second-class coaches) on hold, according to information.

The MRVC will be buying 283 new AC local trains in the coming days. The Railways ministry has given its approval for the procurement of AC local trains but the time-frame for the same is not decided yet, said Railway officials.

Currently, Mumbai has nine AC trains running on a suburban network.

 However, the response from the commuters is lukewarm due to fare which is higher even than first-class coaches and poor frequency of trains. Railway authorities had planned semi-AC trains comprising first, second and AC coaches to tide over the problem of poor frequency.

 However, the Railway Board is now planning to covert the entire fleet of trains into AC trains. 

In the case of the fare of these trains, the Railway Board is looking at the fare structure of metros run in Delhi and Mumbai.

The semi AC local train plan of the railways has also reportedly been put on hold. 

The Central and Western Railway has recently undertaken a passenger survey on the AC local trains and had submitted the response from commuters to the railway ministry. Passengers had asked for a reduction in the fares of the AC local train.

The first suburban AC local train was operated in the Western Railway (WR) in 25th  December 2017. The train service is operational between Churchgate and Virar railway stations.

About Central Railway 

The railway zone was formed on 5 November 1951 by grouping several government-owned railways, including the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the Scindia State Railway of the former princely state of Gwalior, Nizam State Railway, Wardha Coal State Railway and the Dholpur Railways.

The Central Railway zone formerly included large parts of Madhya Pradesh and part of southern Uttar Pradesh, which made it the largest railway zone in India in terms of area, track mileage and staff. These areas became the new West Central Railway zone in April 2003.

The Central Railway General Manager's official residence (erstwhile GIPR agent's residence), 'Glenogle'-a Grade II-B heritage bungalow, is located on Bhausaheb Hire Marg (Mount Pleasant Road), adjacent to the Maharashtra Chief minister's official residence 'Varsha' in Malabar Hill, Mumbai.

The Railway zones are given below.  No 8 is the Central Railway

Main/Long Routes of Central Railway

Mumbai CSMT-Kalyan-Igatpuri-Nashik road-Manmad-Jalgaon-Bhusawal-Akola-Badnera-Wardha-Nagpur

Mumbai CSMT-Kalyan-Karjat-Lonavala-Pune

Mumbai CSMT-Kurla-Vashi-Panvel-Roha

Manmad-Aurangabad-Nanded (south-central railway line)

Pune-Daund-Solapur-Wadi-Tandur

Pune-Satara-Sangli-Miraj-Kolhapur

Miraj-Pandharpur-Kurduvadi-Barshi-Osmanabad-Latur-Latur Road

Ballarshah-Majri-Sevagram (formerly Wardha East Jn.)-Nagpur-Amla-Itarsi

Dadar-Solapur-Dadar