All of Western Railway's 89 trains may soon sport 15 coaches

Mumbai: Western Railway (WR) is all set to present a white paper to the Union railway minister Piyush Goyal, seeking to reduce the rush in suburban locals, increase the capacity of the line by 20 per cent, besides converting to 15-coach trains.
 
The paper also talks of shifting maintenance work of long distance trains between Virar and Dahanu so as to minimise interference with the running of local trains. The detailed plan includes the survey findings regarding railway land, which will allow for extension of platforms to accommodate 15-coach trains.

The paper has also suggested the platform extension work move phase-wise for the latter. Mr Goyal will be arriving in the city on September 29, his second after taking over as railway minister.

WR has said that if Mr Goyal passes the plan and work is taken up on a war footing, it can be a reality by mid 2019. An official said, “We are going to suggest to the minister that a team of officers be specially appointed for the work we will be proposing. That is for example, one officer to look at the work of the platform extension, one to look into when the rolling stock will be delivered, so as to add the three coaches to each of our trains.”

The white paper also addresses practical issues in starting the 15-coach trains between Churchgate-Andheri, that has an ancient signalling system which was meant to operate only 9 coaches initially, and was then upgraded to the current 12-coach.

The official further added, “We have said that we will start phase-wise extension of the platforms, especially between Churchgate and Andheri, where we might have to shut down the fast and the slow line on the stations between them alternately.”