Harbour Line to have 3-min frequency trains soon

The Central Railway has begun work on one of its old projects to respace signals to make the three-minute train headaway a reality on the much-neglected Harbour Line.

A three-minute headway would mean a frequency of about 20 trains per hour to match the global standards of commuting.

There is a demand for upgrading the Harbour Line sevice since with most of the software companies and the city’s wholesale market shifting to Navi Mumbai.

“The harbour line is packed to capacity and respacing signals can help it improve and increase capacity in the given infrastructure. It will not just improve the capacity by allowing to introduce 12-car trains, but also increase the frequency of trains on the double-line section,’’ a senior official said.

Respacing of signals was the most basic requirement and work has now begun on it. The railways have already converted trains on the trans-harbour line between Thane and Vashi-Panvel to 12-car ones. Respacing of signals is a part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, a multi-crore three-phase project to upgrade the rail and road infrastructure of the city.

A senior official said that running of 12-car trains has been initially approved between Wadala and Panvel stations as there is not much problem between these stations. A preliminary survey has found an acute space crunch to run 12-car trains on harbour line between CST and Wadala stations.

The harbour line was also the first electric railway in India, when it was electrified later in 1925 and extended to Mumbai CST.