Mumbai Local: AC trains HUGE success among travellers, ridership increases over months

The number of passengers using air-conditioned suburban trains has increased seven-fold over the past six months, with the strongest numbers coming from the Thane, Dombivali, and Kalyan stations, as per a statement by a Central Railway official. According to a CR announcement, ridership climbed from 5,939 per day in February of this year to 41,333 in August, and 56 of its 1,819 suburban trips per day are made up of AC locals.

"Between February and August, the highest number of 10,50,511 passengers travelled on AC locals from Thane, followed by Dombivali with 9,39,431 passengers and Kalyan with 9,01,859 passengers," the release informed.

Incidentally, CR had to withdraw 10 services of the AC local train on its main line (from CSMT to Thane and beyond) after passengers patronising non-AC suburban trains at Badlapur and Kalwa stations in neighbouring Thane district agitated. Even Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar entered the debate by claiming AC trains should be permanently withdrawn and be replaced with normal ones for the benefit of passengers.

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Central Railway ferries around 40 lakh passengers on its suburban network, which spans from CSMT to Kasara and Khopoli (main line), CSMT to Panvel and Goregaon (harbour line), Vashi to Thane and Panvel (trans-harbour line) and the newly commissioned Bamandongri-Belapur/ Seawood line.

With inputs from PTI