Central Railway (CR) is checking the feasibility of adding two coaches to the existing toy train at Matheran. A team from the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) visited the site last week and will be conducting trials for the same.
At present there are six coaches that are being run on the route from Neral to Matheran. “There was a long standing demand from the locals that we increase the number of coaches to eight. We have asked the RDSO to conduct trials to check if this is possible. Usually the trials take around 15 days after which they will submit a report,” said S.K. Jain, Divisional Railway Manager, Mumbai, CR.
Increasing the capacity is one of the many plans that CR has for the route. The toy train will be getting five new coaches as well as an AC coach soon, for which the fare is yet to be fixed. The new coaches have larger windows for tourists to get a better view of the scenic route. CR is also trying redesign one of the old coaches to create a vistadome-like one, which will have a glass ceiling.
CR has also appointed a team from the JJ School of Art as consultants for heritage preservation and restoration of the stations and buildings along the track. All these efforts are a part of the initiative to revive the route and to apply for a World Heritage Status, which has been given to other hill station train routes at Darjeeling and Kalka-Shimla.
In order to promote tourism in the section, CR will also convert one of the coaches into a restaurant and are also tying up with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation to create packages involving the original steam locomotive.
After being shut for a year owing to derailments, the hilly line was partially re-opened last year and the full service from Neral to Matheran was rolled on January 26.
