Western Railway to upgrade 106 services to 12 car tomorrow

MUMBAI: This week, the Western Railway will chug one step closer to having fewer nine-car trains, meaning a little bit more space for the jostling commuters, without congesting the section.
Three extra compartments will be added to seven nine-coach WR trains each on April 14, when 106 nine-car services will be augmented, taking 12-car services beyond the 1,000 mark.Since January last year, 284 services have been upgraded to 12-car ones, offering 33% more carrying capacity on a train per trip. "The 106 upgraded services would create additional space for about 1.25 lakh commuters on the trains. The 12-car services will account for 83% of the total WR services," said Sharat Chandrayan, chief PRO of WR.
After the upgrade on Thursday, the WR will have only seven nine-car trains of its total fleet of 76 rakes. Currently, the WR runs 1,210 services every day, of which 1,002 will turn 12-car, 196 nine-car and the remaining 12 services will be run by the lone 15-car train. Of the latest batch to be converted, 61 services will be from Churchgate to Borivli, 27 from Churchgate to Andheri, 12 from Churchgate to Bandra, three from Bandra to Borivli, one from Mumbai Central to Borivli, one from Churchgate to Mumbai Central and one from Andheri to Borivli.
Chandrayan said in the next five months, all nine-car services will be turned into 12-car ones. The WR locals will also run on AC power in the coming months.