Bleak future for Matheran train

The Central Railway (CR) officials have said unless money for making railway travel safer comes in, they will not operate the Neral-Matheran services. Officials have said that they do not have the knowledge to improve the infrastructure of the toy-train, as it is the only one that runs on a two-metre gauge (tracks).

The CR, which has completely shut down the train services on this section, has said that they will be bringing in European expertise, which runs 2.6 broad metre gauge since they are the only ones that can help in re-designing a newer and safer train system. “We know how to run the train, but we do not know how to make it safer as we do not have any expertise in building the train,” said a railway official.

One of the few things that are being considered is to bring in broader track and coaches. “Currently we are looking into things like making the train a little broader, that is to bring in new ruling stock altogether and increasing the distance between tracks, which currently is two-feet so the broader rolling stock can fit in,” added the official.

Railway officials have explained that they have only ‘suspended’ and not shut down the services completely, “We have only suspended the service for the time as it is a safety hazard but we have not shut them down completely as of yet, but given the fact that the railway board wants zero derailments, the decision to stop the service altogether cannot be ruled out,” said another senior railway official.