Churchgate-Dahanu trial run a success: WR

At midnight on Saturday, Western Railway conducted a trial run of an Electric Multiple Unit (EMU). It will start operations at the end of March, giving huge relief to the thousands of commuters travelling between Churchgate and Dahanu.

The proposed project of plying trains between Dahanu and Churchgate was approved in the railway budget of 2012-13. Commuters became hopeful of some respite when WR announced that it will start services by March-end.

According to sources, WR will ply 25 services between Dahanu and Churchgate.
From the current 18 Mainline Electrical Multiple Units (MEMU) services, 13 will be converted into EMUs and the rest will replace passenger trains between Mumbai Central and Dahanu and run 10 additional services.

A single EMU has the capacity of carrying 4,500 passengers, while a MEMU has the capacity of carrying 2,000. These are aimed to gradually decrease the crowding and travelling hassles on the route, said a WR official.

“We had conducted a trial run between Dahanu and Churchgate in order to train motormen and guards. We also wanted to conduct trials for safety parameters, equipment, rakes and technical confirmation,” said CNK David, PRO, WR.

Sources close to senior WR officials said that WR has sorted out the issue between the loco pilots and motormen will ply the train.

@ImranFazalDNA