To meet the growing demand of Mumbai local air-conditioned (AC) trains, the Western Railways (WR) have decided to add 31 more such EMUs from October 1.
This move comes as the AC local trains on WR has remarked huge success and also has been receiving overwhelming responses.
Moreover, the decision came amid an ongoing debate about the need for more local AC trains in Mumbai after a video of a chock-full AC train went viral.
On the other hand, officials said the decision to introduce more AC service was taken a few weeks ago after analysing the continuously rising number of passengers in AC locals. We are fully aware of the rising number of passengers in AC trains.
WR Official stated that the time table for these services being finalised, some of them are new and some are replacing existing non-AC services.
According to the data, the number of passengers using AC suburban trains has increased seven-fold over the past six months.
At present, WR runs 48 AC services between Churchgate - Virar in the suburban section and the number will soon become 79 with the latest additions.
Hence the total number of suburban services will go up to 1,383.
Meanwhile, on Central Railways (CR), Thane, Dombivali, and Kalyan stations recorded the highest number of AC passengers. In February, the ridership was just 5939 per day, but in August, the daily numbers soared to 41333.
Besides, recently, railway announced that first-class local train passengers can travel in AC local trains by upgrading their quarterly passes.
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