The Central Railway (CR) is expected to launch four modified coaches with Metro-longitudinal seats and have removed three seats near the door, on Christmas.
The CR has been talking about including these modified coaches with a two-by-two seat arrangement, but a decision has not been reached so far.
A senior railway official, requesting anonymity, said the 2006 experimental coaches with two-by-two seats already exist and so do the longitudinal seats, but it seems the latter is the better of the two. “In the longitudinal seats’ arrangement, the three seats located immediately next to the doors have been removed,” said the official.
The CR currently has three coaches, of two-by-two and longitudinal seating, running in Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL)-make trains and the current modified trains are of Seimens make expected to run by Christmas. “The trial run of these modified coaches will be for a period of a month after which we will conduct a commuter survey to check whether they passengers liked the modified coaches or not,” said another official.
The Railways will be unveiling the coaches to the media at the Matunga car-shed today afternoon after which the coaches will undergo rigorous safety checks before being inducted into service.
Modified seats have been introduced twice in the Mumbai suburban system. Once in 1975 and in 2006. The trains were also fondly named Khada Gaadi (standing train) during these experiments. Commuters on both instances rejected the experiment and the Railways did not build more such coaches as a result. The 2006 experiment had, in fact, caused one of the commuters to file an appeal in the high court against the same. “People from Kasara, Karjat, Vasai, who travelled for one to one-and-a-half-hours, had rejected the concept as they had been left standing for a very long time during the journey. The commuters said that they would rather take a chance at sitting halfway during the journey than stand throughout it,” added the official.
Railway officials hope that the four-coaches idea would work since Seimens’ trains are broader than the BHEL ones.
