20 years on, CR connects fifth, sixth lines to LTT

MUMBAI: The fifth and sixth lines between Thane and Kurla were connected to the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) on Sunday, after a delay of over two decades. For lakhs of commuters, this will come as a major relief, claim Central Railway (CR) officials.
The two new lines would ensure that there are fewer delays as the new tracks are meant exclusively for outstation trains and they would no longer occupy the tracks meant for fast locals, they say.
The first outstation train to use the new lines was Rajendra-Nagar-LTT Express.
A CR official said that they would commence 48 new services for suburban commuters when new rakes join the fleet. There would be additional capacity for long distance trains also. "Our priority now is to convert nine-car trains to 12-car. We will start the new services after that. Nineteen pairs of long distance and five pairs of goods trains will be shifted from the fast lines to the new lines," said the official.
General manager of CR, Kul Bhushan, said, "It was a difficult and cumbersome project. Mail express trains will now have a separate line. Train schedules will be readjusted so that new services can start from CST. A few mail express terminuses may also be changed. The immediate benefit is improved punctuality, especially during peak hours. Earlier, express and suburban services intersected at Kurla."
Around 1000 persons worked on a 1.25-km stretch for disconnecting existing exit and entry of LTT to down and up fast line and connecting fifth and sixth lines to LTT.
Chief PRO, CR V Malegaonkar said that theoretically, around 48 paths would be created. However, the problem arises beyond Thane as there will be a bottleneck, which will be sorted out when the lines between Thane and Diwa are laid, he added.
M Suresh, chief signal and telecommunications engineer, CR, said they have taken care to ensure that no signal failures occur. If that happens, speed restriction would come into force, he added.
Meanwhile, CR lines crawled throughout the day. A passenger said that it took an hour to commute between Andheri and Vidhyavihar. "I had to reach Vidyavihar urgently. I took a train to Dadar on the western line, which was late by around 15 minutes. At Dadar, there were no fast locals and all slow trains were crawling," he said.CR runs 1,279 local services on Sunday, but due to the mega block, another 100 were cancelled. Officials said that trains on the fast line were to be diverted on the slow lines from 6 am to 11 am between Matunga and Mulund. However, the block was lifted at 8:40 am.
"At Vikhroli, a number of measures have been taken to curb cases of trespassing. We have allowed people to use the FOB without holding a tickets, improved lighting, removed obstructions and round-the-clock RPF at the LC gate. Only one case of trespassing was reported in the last five months," he said.