AC train may not run every day after its debut on X’mas

Mumbai:  While Mumbaikars can look forward to the air-conditioned train finally being run this Christmas Day, railway officials said that it may not run every day once it starts. With union minister Piyush Goyal having assured that the train will run on December 25, it may run just to keep his word but may be suspended for a few days in the week due to its unpredictability, said officials.

Officials fear that the train may prove to be more of a problem than a solution to the city’s need for an air-conditioned suburban train. An official said, "The fear is that the train will not be able to make it through the week without major failures. Hence, the plan is that if we have to withdraw the AC train from services, we will replace it with a normal train in the schedule but again, this will see a lot of public outcry.”

This uncertainty is also the reason why western railway (WR) may not introduce monthly services so early. Another official said, “We do not plan to introduce the monthly pass until we can ensure providing the AC train to commuters every day.”

The AC train fares for Churchgate to Virar are between `10 and `85 and the train is likely to first run on the fast track. The official added, “The trick is to keep fixing the train and technical issues as and when they come up.” Towards this, officials plan to initially deploy one technical staff in each such train. “If there is a technical issue in the train, we want to save time that would otherwise be taken in getting someone from the closest station to the train to fix the issue. Instead, the person deployed can make his way to the place where the problem is being faced,” the official said.

One of the issues faced by the AC train is that it tends to stop on its own after which, it has to be shut down completely and restarted to push the system back to normalcy. The AC train has been one of the most anticipated trains in the city’s recent history.