Harbour line now a 12-car fleet, 33% rise in capacity

The first 12-car Harbour line service was inducted on April 29.

In a major relief to 10 lakh Harbour line commuters, all 9-car trains, from Wednesday, will run with 12 coaches. For suburban commuters travelling between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)-Panvel and CST-Andheri, this means a 33 per cent increase in carrying capacity.

Currently, 2,500-3,000 commuters travel in a Harbour line train during peak hours but with this augmentation, the passenger capacity would increase up to 4,000.

CR operates around 584 services on Harbour line (CST-Panvel and CST-Andheri) with 36 trains. However, there is a train with Western Railway which still has 9 cars.

“The different composition of coaches leads to confusion among passengers while boarding the train. With this conversion, confusion about coach position comes to an end. It would be good if WR undertakes conversion of the remaining one train also,” said Narendra Patil, chief public relation officer, Central Railway.

The first 12-car Harbour line service was inducted on April 29 and since then in phased manner the services were being augmented from nine to 12 cars.

When contacted, Mukul Jain, divisional railway manager (DRM), Mumbai Central (WR) to confirm conversion of one last train owned by WR, he said, “We have requested CR to take all Harbour line operations from us. So they can take this train from us and convert it to 12-car and operate it. We are short of additional rake to convert it.”