Mumbai: After a delay of 10 years, the Western Railway (WR) will finally run local trains on the 5th line from Friday, but only partially. The 5th line, which was proposed to be constructed in 2007 between Mumbai Central to Virar, will now be operational between Andheri and Virar. These services are a part of the 28 services that will be inaugurated by Union minister Piyush Goyal. The line, also known as the Suburban Track Avoidance line, was supposed to be for only long-distance trains.
The WR had been running long-distance services in the Andheri-Virar stretch until now but later thought of running extra local services on the same line during slack hours, an official said. “We had begun to run long-distance trains on the line as we originally planned but then we realised that there are gaps between the long-distance trains when we can run local trains and since it will be on a small section it will be more punctual than for long stretches.”
The WR has managed to squeeze in seven new services between Andheri and Virar during peak and non-peak hours and hopes to decrease the crowd inside the compartments. An official said, “As we all know, Andheri sees the highest number of footfall than any other station in Mumbai and the commuting pattern has shown us that fewer and fewer people come all the way to Churchgate and now travel between far-off suburbs to suburbs for their jobs.”
