The Central Railway administration, which was depending on the retrofitment of rakes to provide extra services until last year, is now contemplating putting an end to the exercise, citing a high failure rate.
CR General Manager Subodh Jain during a media interaction yesterday said that of the failures reported on the network, most are due to the rake itself. If the failure rate of different types of rakes on CR is to be compared, the retrofitted rakes top the list, followed by BHEL and then Siemens rakes. Jain also stated that DC rakes have the least failures.
The administration is now planning to approach the Railway Board to give it four new rakes in the fiscal year, so that it can introduce new services as promised in the 2012-2013 Railway budget.
Apart from the unit failure, the OHE failures too have almost doubled, with 11 failures this June as compared to six failures in June 2011. This too has left the administration worried, said Jain. The work of AC-DC conversion has been halted for the same reason, after a recent failure at Vangani injured three commuters.
CST-Kalyan to get ten 15-car services
In order to bring down congestion during peak hours on the CST-Kalyan route, ten 15-car services will be introduced by the end of the fiscal year. This will be in addition to the first 15-car service that will be introduced on this route, expected to begin from
October.
Of the 75 suburban services announced for Mumbai during the Railway Budget this year, 40 will be on CR. The services will only be introduced later in the fiscal year though, as the remodeling of Thane yard will have to be completed first, shared the GM.
Thane-Panvel to be 12-car from August
In order to increase the carrying capacity per local, the remaining 78 out of the 208 services running on the Thane-Vashi-Panvel route will be augmented to 12-car.
New services from January 2013
- 12 services – Thane - Karjat
- 8 services – Thane - Kasara
- 10 (15-car) services – CST- Kalyan
- 4 services – Wadala - Panvel
- 6 services – Thane -Vashi