The Central Railway (CR) has decided to call off its attempts to run the Mumbai-Pune Intercity Express with the push-pull method from Thursday. The train will now run on its original course and will include a halt at Karjat.
CR officials said the trials, which started on May 31, did not meet the success that was expected. The new method involves placing one engine each at the front and back of the train and eliminates the need to have extra engines, called bankers, to negotiate the ghat section.
They said the aim had been to cut down the journey time between Mumbai and Pune to a record two hours 35 minutes from the earlier run time of three hours 17 minutes. “However, during the monsoon, the ghat section has had some issue or the other due to which the train was not clocking the expected time. This led to constant complaints from passengers,” an official said.
CR has successfully implemented the method on the CSMT-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express, which has cut the run time of the train by around 90 minutes.
Officials also said several regular passengers, who used to board the train at Karjat, had been against the trials as the train did not halt there. While the train had no scheduled halt at Karjat, it used to stop there for around five minutes for the bankers to be attached. Nitin Parmar, a resident of Karjat and member of CR’s Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee, welcomed the development and said it was better late than never.
Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer, CR, confirmed the development and said the trail had been called off due to operational reasons.
