Western Railway’s second-hand rakes bringing Central Railway to a halt
A series of engine failures on the Central Railway, thanks to the second-hand rakes bequeathed to it by its Western counterpart, have impacted its punctuality a review report has revealed.
The engines failures occurred on more than 100 instances since June.
This week itself saw two such failures. The CR has 40 such hand-me-downs from the Western Railway (WR) that has led to at least 20 per cent slump in its punctuality.
The CR had borrowed the rakes from the WR six months ago as the former had to phase out its older rakes. On October 13 and 14, there were failures at Sanpada and then Kurla respectively.
The CR review was undertaken to owing to the recurring engine failures experienced by the rakes borrowed from the WR.
The engines of the 40 rakes have failed umpteen times, with the train either being terminated before its destination or completely withdrawn from service, said a CR officer who did not wish to be named. “We have working round-the-clock to ensure there are no failures, even as the WR is benefiting from the new Bombardier rakes.”
The CR has been phasing out its own rakes that were being run past their approved age of 30 years and replacing them with WR’s rakes, but this has not helped improve punctuality.
“The second-hand WR trains are now posing bigger problem than our old rakes. Our men at the carshed are working over time just to make these trains viable.”
The Asian Age earlier this month reported that following a series of failures, the CR had requested the Railway Board in a meeting held at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal to offer the remaining 12 out of the 72 new Bombardier-make rakes to them.
Report highlights The CR was initially expected to get 38 rakes but retired general manager Sunil Kumar Sood, who was also handling the charge of the WR, said it would be easier to maintain if WR got all the Bombardier rakes. CR runs 40 of WR’s old Siemens rakes that have begun to break down with increased frequency in the past two months. The CR has seen a 20 per cent hit in punctuality of its trains as a result of it in the past four months.
