By April, no 9-car trains on WR

By January 26, the Western Railway will convert its 51 nine-coach trains into 12-coach ones, increasing its commuter carrying capacity by more than 50,000.

By January 26, the Western Railway will convert its 51 nine-coach trains into 12-coach ones, increasing its commuter carrying capacity by more than 50,000.

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The services which will see the change include the Churchgate-Borivali-Churchgate service, Churchgate-Andheri-Churchgate service and Churchgate-Bandra service.

The new development will leave only 10 trains in the fleet of nine-coach trains on the WR and by April, the nine-coach trains will be history on the western line. “We have been augmenting the nine-coach trains to 12-coach trains since December 2010 and by April, the nine-coach trains will be phased out,” said Sharat Chandrayan, chief public relations officer, Western Railway.

The transition from nine-coach to 12-coach trains would allow trains on the western line to carry around 4.9 lakh more daily commuters on trains, a percentage rise of 15 from the current 33 lakh daily commuters. The total number of 12-coach services on the WR is 869; accounting for nearly 74% of the total 1,210 services.

There are 104 services run by the Central Railway (harbour line) on the WR stations including six services run by the WR on the harbour line.

“We are coordinating with the CR to augment the harbour line services as well,” Chandrayan added. The WR also plans to introduce more 15-coach trains. All stations on the western line, except Churchgate and Naigaon, are ready for 15-coach trains. WR already runs a 15-coach train.