Pay double for AC local travel

Mumbai: The Western Railway (WR) and the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) have finally calculated the ticket and pass fare for air-conditioned local trains. The maximum cost of a monthly AC train pass will be Rs 2,205 from Virar to Churchgate. The AC train, which will hit the WR tracks line on Monday, will take one hour and 22 minutes to cover the 59-km route between Virar and Churchgate. The cost of a single ticket will be between Rs 65 and Rs 220. Season tickets will be made available from Monday at ticket counters. A first-class monthly pass of a suburban train costs Rs 1,185.

The AC local is one of the most anticipated trains as almost 38 lakh commuters who hold passes travel on WR every day. The officials said that the AC train would hopefully convince a few car owners to shift to train.

Aakanksha Bajpai (26), who travels from Borivali to Churchgate everyday, said, “I am so happy that the train is coming to the Western line. Even though I’ve read in the newspapers that only two of the 12 coaches will be for women, I feel that I can try to get into the general coach. I feel once people decide to travel by AC trains regularly, the crowd inside the general coaches would be decent.”

WR chief public relations officer Ravindra Bhakar said, “The fares have been decided, keeping in view the fact that the common man would want to travel on the train. Hopefully, they will take the train as it comes in the wake of a lot of effort by officials.”

Making debut
The maiden journey of the train has been rescheduled from 2.10 pm to 10.20 am on Monday. The AC train will depart from Borivali station instead of Andheri station and will head to Churchgate. Railway officials conducted a technical run of the train on Sunday, which was successful. The train’s halting time was calculated as it has automatic closing doors.