On Friday, December 11, the Western Railway (WR) zone announced that it has decided to add three more Air Conditioned (AC) trains in the Mumbai suburban services. These new AC locals will run on the Virar to Churchgate route.
This decision came after a statement released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on December 10, which stated the services would only begin in the new year, i.e. 2021.
At present 4 locals are in service and the WR administration is planning on how to run the remaining 3 locals. It is understood that 2 out of 3 locals will be in service by March 2021, while one local will be in service only after March.
According to an official with Western Railway, initially a total of 10 Air Conditioned services (2 slow services - 1 in down direction between Mahalaxmi- Borivali and 1 in up direction between Borivali- Churchgate and 8 Fast services- 4 in down direction between Churchgate-Virar and 4 in up direction between Virar-Churchgate) will operate.
As many as 1,023 tickets and 667 passes were sold till November. In December, so far 331 tickets and 223 passes have been sold, according to Western Railway. The passenger capacity of an AC local is 5,964. However, only 700 passengers are allowed to travel on a single locomotive during the corona period.
The first AC local service started on December 25, 2017. After that, in stages, these locals started coming in convoys. By December 2019, 4 AC locomotives had entered the service of Western Railway. Though, it did not get much response on the Churchgate to Virar route.
Later, since March, these locomotive services were shut due to the lockdown imposed in the wake of COVID-19 pamdemic. However, after 7 months of shut down, the AC locals resumed it services in October but it witnessed a little response from the passengers.
Currently, local train services are being used by essential workers, women, and selected professionals with a valid ID.
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