After Ola and Uber proved to be crowd-pullers, various unions of the kaali-peeli autos and taxis requested the state government to bring them under its ambit.
While app-based taxi aggregators such as Ola and Uber have changed the way Mumbaikars traditionally travelled — using kaali-peeli taxis and autos, BEST buses and suburban local trains — Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that blue and silver AC local trains will start running in the city by September.
After Ola and Uber proved to be crowd-pullers, various unions of the kaali-peeli autos and taxis requested the state government to bring them under its ambit. The unions had also approached the Bombay High Court, after which the state government is now currently in the process of bringing the app-based cab aggregators under its City Taxi Rules, 2017.
On the other hand, the emergence of the cab aggregators has resulted in the kaali-peeli taxi drivers also coming up with a mobile application for booking their vehicles. The success of Ola and Uber is also one of the reasons why the traffic burden on the already-clogged city roads has increased.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the AC local trains, these are expected to change the travel experience of lakhs of commuters who travel daily on the Central and Western Railway.
The first AC local train coach arrived in the city last year from Chennai and has been undergoing a series of trials. Prior to the Western Railway, the trial runs were being conducted on Central Railway (CR) routes. But this was changed due to issues related to the height of the coaches being more than that of the bridges that fall in the routes aligned to CR.
For a few months now, WR is conducting the trial runs on the Borivli-Churchgate section. There are a few technical challenges that WR claims to have overcome during the test runs, and the trains are expected to be operational by September.
WR claims that the services will initially run during peak hours. Two services will run in the morning, followed by two in the afternoon, and two during the evening peak hours.
The fare structure for the AC local train tickets has not been decided yet, but the same is being prepared keeping the fare structure of the Delhi Metro in mind. The fare structure on the Delhi Metro is Rs 15 for 2-5 km, followed by Rs 20 for 5-12 km, Rs 30 for 12-21 km, and Rs 40 for 21-32 km.
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