Low ridership: Harbour AC locals may change track

Aiming to kill two birds with one stone, the Central Railway is seriously mulling over diverting the AC trains from Harbour to Main line. The contemplation was necessitated by the statistically-approved fact that there are extremely low footfalls on the Harbour line running between CSMT-Panvel and CSTM-Goregaon route as compared to Main line’s CSMTKalyan section.

According to official data, the Harbour line has so far ferried 37,180 passengers with a daily average of only 522 passengers, which forms a mere 3.50 per cent of total passengers travelling in the AC trains on all lines. In April, the average number of total passengers per day was 19,761; of this, there were 17,473 passengers on the Main line and 2,288 on Harbour. Between May 1 and May 8, the average number of total passengers per day was 28,141; of which there were 24,842 on the Main line, while the Harbour line saw a sparse crowd of 3,299 passengers. Since February 19, the Main and Harbour lines on CR have carried 10,56,091 passengers. Of them, just 37,180 have travelled on the Harbour line. While there is also growing clamour among travellers of AC locals to chug these trains on Sundays as well as public holidays.

To address the issue of low number of passengers, a discussion did take place on Monday and the CR authorities expressed intent to shift the eight AC local services from the Harbour line, said sources.

"After much deliberation, we are now seriously contemplating to divert the eight AC services from the CSMT-Panvel Harbour line to the Main line. We expect it to happen anytime during this week," said a CR official.

The move would also open a window to think of operating a few AC train services on Sundays and public holidays as well, said another official.