Mumbai: Central Railway (CR) commuters should refrain from pinning their hopes on the timetable slated for release in May as hardly 15 services are expected to be added, that too in far-off suburbs.
Officials said that the new services will mostly be run between Kalyan, Thane and Kasara with a smattering on harbour line.
An official said, “Thane to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and back is basically completed saturated. There is no way that we can run any new services at all particularly in that section.”
This saturation is also the reason why union railway minister Suresh Prabhu has asked chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to stagger working hours in government offices like BMC and Mantralaya to reduce the rush in trains.
The official said, “Since we cannot do anything about the CST-Kalyan services, the suggestion of staggering office leaving times came about.”
In November 2016, CR increased a total 37 services, of which 13 were on trans-harbour, 11 on harbour, and 13 between Kalyan and Karjat, Kasara. After the November revision, CR has a total of 1,660 services.
Activist Subhash Gupta said that the delay in projects and increase in number of commuters was the reason behind this situation.
“The railway has been unable to complete the fifth and sixth line on which only mail express trains would run thereby freeing up space on present local lines to increase services. There is a lack of political will as well which is why projects have been slow to move,” Mr Gupta lamented.
