As per statistics, 60-70 per cent of passengers alight from long-distance trains at Kalyan and by the time trains reach Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus or Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, they are almost empty
Commuters try to board a local train from the wrong side. File Pic/Nimesh Dave
Despite the push for a Mumbai suburban railway upgrade after the Mumbra tragedy that claimed the lives of five passengers, railway officials are sitting on the already approved idea of operating special out-of-timetable trains in a circuitous route. Passenger associations on Wednesday questioned why no one in the railway administration was taking the plan ahead on a pilot basis, following which Mumbaikars could decide on its implementation.
This move, if implemented on an experimental basis, will help Central Railway (CR) Mumbai’s system in a big way by paving the way for local train services. The idea is being dodged by various zones, and the question now is who will bell the cat?
“If it is benefiting the Mumbai suburban rail network, the railways should experiment with it and allow stakeholders to decide. They should try out the experiment and assess the situation… whether it can work out on a larger scale,” Siddhesh Desai of the Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh, told mid-day.
Given the large number of deaths on the Mumbai rail network, sources said CR authorities should take the lead. “Between January 2024 and December 2024, the Mumbai suburban railway network reported 2468 deaths and 2697 injuries due to various reasons, of which falling from trains was recorded as the reason for maximum casualties,” he said.
Desai asserted, however, that whenever commuter organisations ask for an increase in services, railway officials say the system is saturated and there is “no space or paths” for even a single suburban train to be added.
“On the city’s rail network, where every second is important and every train is important, this idea could click very well. This year, the CR authorities ran nearly a thousand special train trips from Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. The move would cut short the turnaround period of trains and prevent them from coming in the path of suburban trains,” Subhash Gupta, of Yatri Sangh Mumbai, said.
The proposal states: “The outstation trains enter Mumbai, intersect with suburban traffic, need space at stations, occupy platforms, their engines need to be reversed, and coaches need parking. Then the same procedure has to be followed when sending them to their destination. What is being planned is that the train will arrive from its destination via Kasara, come till Kalyan and proceed via Pune back to the same destination — a circuitous route.”
As per statistics, 60-70 per cent of passengers alight from long-distance trains at Kalyan and by the time trains reach Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus or Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, they are almost empty.
“It will avoid terminal congestion. We need to look at cleanliness and watering. Both of these can be done on the go. There is no need for the train to wait at the terminus station for four to six hours only to refill water inside coaches and to clean them. Technically, a train needs to undergo maintenance after crossing 4000 km. This way, a single train and crew can be efficiently used. The entire circuitous route distance is within that parameter, and hence the plan was found to be technically feasible. We can start with two routes,” the proposal states.
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