200 old coaches to be phased out

With the conversion to Alternate Current (AC) slated on the Harbour and Trans-Harbour, the line is set to finally rid itself of around 200 old, badly ventilated and narrow coaches, giving Harbour commuters a reason to be happy.

The process has already begun with the 10 out of the 27 Seimens rakes that have come in from the Western Railway (WR) being run on the Harbour line. Five out 10 rakes that are run on the Trans-Harbour have also been replaced. The entire Harbour and Trans-Harbour line has a total of 468 coaches including the back up coaches too, which are all overage — running past their deadline of being phased out.

CR officials who have been working their way up to the conversion on March 31, said that the tedious work of getting rid of these coaches had begun almost nine-months ago.

“We have around 400 coaches on the Harbour line out of which 197 are in immediate need to be removed but we will have to get rid of all the 400 as they too are scheduled to be scrapped in the coming year,” said a senior CR official on the condition of anonymity.

Commuters like Deepti Khera (25), a freelance writer who resides in Kharghar and travels across the city, said that if the line is rid of the old coaches it would be just in time for the summer.

“The CR has said that they will convert to AC soon and now there is news that the air-conditioned train will also sent to the Harbour line. For me more than the air-conditioned train I would prefer roomier compartments with an actual ventilation system as the ones that are currently seen in the trains are just holes punched into the roof of the train,” she said.