15-coach trains on Central Rly from October

Mumbai: The much-awaited 15-coach trains will start running on the Central Railway (CR) from October.

The much-awaited 15-coach trains will start running on the Central Railway (CR) from October.

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Subodh Kumar Jain, general manager, CR, on Friday, announced the introduction of 10 suburban services with 15-car rakes between CST and Kalyan from October, following the completion of platform extension. Commuters have been demanding 15-coach trains since their introduction on the WR in 2009.

Jain said that the CR plans to introduce 40 new services that were announced in the railway budget till the end of March 2013. These include 6 Thane-Karjat, 4 Thane-Kasara, 2 Wadala-Panvel, 2 Thane-Vashi and 5 CST-Kalyan services with 15-car rakes.

Work on platform extension has started and is expected to be completed by September. “We will start 15-car services with one rake in October. The services will be available even during the peak hours,” said Jain.

Jain also promised to convert all nine-car services to 12-car within a month. “Only 78 nine-car services are still to be converted to 12 cars,” he said. A senior official added that a new suburban timetable will be introduced from August 1.

The announcement-related module of train management system (TMS) on CR will be fully functional by July 10. All announcements related to operation of trains between CST and Kalyan stations will be made through it. “Only some work is left in Thane, which will be completed within a week,” he said.

About the frequent disruption of trains, Jain said: “We will write a letter to the chairman of the railway board on the issue.”

Highlights

The CR will introduce 19 new long-distance trains, increase the frequency of 7 trains, and extend the journey of 2 trains from July 1

Passenger amenities and facilities will be improved in Deccan Queen and Pune-Nagpur express

The trains terminating at LTT will stop at Thane station