The Central Railway's efforts to complete the Mumbai-Pune journey in 2 hours 30 min seems to be getting difficult by the day. Firstly, in the five of the seven day trial period the superfast Intercity Express train has not reached Pune or arrived back in Mumbai on scheduled time despite monitoring by both Mumbai and Pune divisions and now mid-station passenger associations from Karjat have written strong letters to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, local MLAs and Maharashtra state ministers on how skipping the halt at Karjat would lead to problems for hundreds of officegoers and students, who take this train.

"It is a stupid dream by Central Railway. You are depriving passengers of their right. Earlier, passengers could take the Indrayani Express, but since that was extended to Solapur, office goers and students heavily depend on the Intercity at Karjat station. If used to halt to add additional engines there. With the halt removed now, passengers are left without an option," Zonal Railway Users' Consultative Committee member Nitin S Parmar said.