Western Railway may soon get more air-conditioned local trains, as the cool rides have been largely welcomed by commuters, a top source from Delhi has told mid-day. “Given the positive feedback from WR, there may be some big announcement soon,” the source said. This comes about a week after mid-day reported how red tape has delayed orders for 238 AC trains promised to Mumbai, in addition to 40 that WR had demanded.
 
Meanwhile, the plan to replace the existing fleet of non-AC local trains with cool rides has been slowed by political opposition, lack of consensus among commuters and red tape. mid-day recently highlighted how grand plans to procure 238 new AC local trains for Mumbai are stuck in a loop of endless discussions and bureaucracy. Since December 2022, when the city got its last AC train, no new order has been placed. Western Railway, however, had made a separate demand for 40 AC locals.

“There is a need for consensus, as a split in opinion of commuters will lead to a number of controversies and a law and order situation, which needs to be avoided at all costs,” the source said. As per official figures, there are 14 AC local trains in Mumbai, but only 11 are operational at present. The Mumbai division of Western Railway runs 79 services with six trains, Central Railway runs five trains with 56 services, while the rest are under maintenance or spares.