In a piece of good news for the Mumbai local train commuters, the Central Railway (CR) on Wednesdsay introduced 14 new air-conditioned local train services on its main line in Mumbai on the occasion of the 172nd anniversary of railways in India. This move will provide great relief to commuters during summer season in Mumbai.
Swapnil Nila, chief public relations officer of the CR, told PTI that seven of the14 new AC services were operational till afternoon and the remaining services will be operated later in the day.
The new services replaced existing non-AC services and with this, the number of AC services on the CR's main line increased to 80 from 66.
The Central Railway said that the replacement of ordinary non-AC services by AC services, especially during peak morning and evening hours, had caused resentment among a section of commuters in the past as the fare of AC trains is much higher.
The new AC local services will be operated from Monday to Saturday. Every day, the CR operates a total of 1,810 suburban services and ferries more than 35 lakh commuters on its Main, Harbour, Trans-Harbour and Belapur-Uran suburban lines.
The first passenger train in India ran on this day 172 years ago from Bori Bunder (present-day Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai) to Tannah (now Thane).
It should be noted that a total of 2.84 crore passengers travelled in 2024 in air-conditioned local trains, which is around 30 percent more than in 2023. The total number of AC local train passengers on Central Railway (CR) was 2.09 crore in 2023. In the similar manner, revenue from AC local trains on CR in 2024 was Rs 124.01 crore, which is around 30 percent more than in 2023 and the Central Railways earned revenue of Rs 94.07 crore from the air-conditioned local trains.
New AC Local Services Schedule
UP Direction (Towards CSMT):
Kalyan dep 07:34 AM → CSMT arr 09:05 AM
Badlapur dep 10:42 AM → CSMT arr 12:12 PM
Thane dep 01:28 PM → CSMT arr 02:25 PM
Thane dep 03:36 PM → CSMT arr 04:34 PM
Thane dep 05:41 PM → CSMT arr 06:40 PM
Thane dep 07:49 PM → CSMT arr 08:48 PM
Badlapur dep 11:04 PM → Thane arr 11:59 PM
DOWN Direction (From CSMT):
Vidyavihar dep 06:26 AM → Kalyan arr 07:25 AM
CSMT dep 09:09 AM → Badlapur arr 10:32 AM
CSMT dep 12:24 PM → Thane arr 01:20 PM
CSMT dep 02:29 PM → Thane arr 03:25 PM
CSMT dep 04:38 PM → Thane arr 05:35 PM
CSMT dep 06:45 PM → Thane arr 07:42 PM
CSMT dep 09:08 PM → Badlapur arr 10:56 PM
(With inputs from PTI)
