The fares will be like the Delhi Metro or around 1.5 times the cost of current first class tickets
Railways minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said Mumbai would get its first air-conditioned local train on January 1.
Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, he said that the AC train would have around seven services daily on the Western Line of Mumbai's suburban railway network. "The AC trains have been tried and tested and will be introduced on January 1," he said.
The fares will be like the Delhi Metro or around 1.5 times the cost of current first class tickets. The Railways has procured nine more Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) AC rakes for Mumbai so that such services can be operated both on both Western lines, officials said.
Goyal also spoke about introducing elevated train services in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, but only after a preliminary feasibility study and then a financial study.
On the recommendations of a multidisciplinary audit team that is conducting a survey of each suburban station after the stampede at Elphinstone Road station, Goyal announced installation of 370 escalators at stations with heavy traffic over the next three to four years.
A decision has been taken to install 3,000 escalators at the railway stations across India, but the time-frame for this has not been defined as studies are yet to take place to identify the stations, he said.
He also hinted at putting an end to the flexi fare. Goyal said the media did not pay attention to a Special Rajdhani introduced between Delhi and Mumbai thrice a week, as an experiment, that reaches passengers early in the morning and has no flexi fare.
The fare of the new Rajdhani has been kept at 20% more than the base fare of the existing Rajdhani, giving rise to the speculation that the 20% hike in the superfast trains may be introduced instead of flexi fare.
Goyal said a new railway timetable would be released from November 1 and stressed on giving priority to safety over speed, saying that it is better to change timings of trains that perpetually run late than to compromise safety of the passengers.
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