The time taken by commuters to travel from Thane to Panvel will reduce by nine minutes from February 5. A fast train will halt only at Koparkhairane, Nerul, Belapur CBD and Khargar station.
Currently, the travel time from Thane to Panvel is 55 minutes.
The harbour line, especially the trans-harbour section, will be the first corridor to get a fast train. Till date, the entire stretch had just one pair of tracks (one each in the up and down direction). “Our priority is to add more and more services and maintain the punctuality and frequency at 3 to 4 minutes. In such a situation, with inadequate infrastructure, it wasn’t possible to add fast trains on the harbour line between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Panvel,” said MC Chouhan, divisional railway manager of Central Railway. “Now, with the availability of rakes and space on the trans-harbour link between Thane and Panvel, we have decided to add one nine-car rake which will add four services [two each in up and down direction] during peak hours,” Chouhan said.
The total number of services run by CR on the entire suburban section will increase from 1,464 to 1,468.
As of now, there are 160 services which ply between Thane and Panvel. “We have 23 new Siemens rakes and another 12 will be pressed into service in two months,” Chouhan said. Also, one existing nine-car rake will be replaced by the newly procured AC/DC Siemens rake.
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