By 2020, Harbour Line will be the cool route

Having fewer commuters and a straight-line route, it is the simplest option for bringing in new ACed trains

MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA, 17/02/2017: The first ever air-conditioned suburban local train arrived from Integral Coach Factory, Chennai to Mumbai on April 5, 2016, seen parked at Kurla car shed. Total 5964 passengers, including sitting and standing can travel in this train which can run on 110 kmps. Air-condition train was built at the cost of 54 crore has no separate first class compartment except two rakes reserve for women passengers. Talk Back Facility, installed at each doorways to communicate with motorman incase of emergency, is one of main features along with vestibule compartments of this train. Photo: Prashant Nakwe

For Harbour Line passengers, who often grumble about the lack of attention paid to their woes, there is good news ahead. Railway Board plans to use the new MUTP III air-conditioned rakes, expected in 2020, on the smallest commuter line. And it’s the fact that the line is the smallest that influenced that decision.

The Harbour line runs 590 services a day between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Panvel, carrying nearly 14 lakh passengers per day. It does so using 47 rakes. And that is the exact number of new air-conditioned rakes that will be brought in 2020.

Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation senior officials say, it was a simple decision to replace all the current rakes with the new ones. “The harbour line, with less passenger load is a better option to make it a success.” This means officials won’t have to worry about which services to replace and face the ire of the commuters whose regular service isn’t air-conditioned.

The first trains on the Harbour Line began in 1927, with a four-coach service. In 1963, these became nine-car rakes. Despite the burgeoning population in the areas that the line serves, and its expansion across the Thane Creek to become in effect a trans-harbour line, it was only in April 2016 that the first 12-car rakes were introduced, and October 2016 before all services became 12-car.

Only one small segment of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s commuters will get ACed trains, with the Western Railway expected to introduced a service by September this year between Churchgate to Virar on the fast corridor. The rake, which cost ₹55 crore, arrived in Mumbai from the Integrated Coach factory in April last year, but is still not in service, It will seat seat 1,028 and accommodate an additional 4,936 standees at maximum capacity.