Extension of platforms at Churchgate for 15-car trains

The city’s trains and termini are getting longer to cope with more and more passengers.

Western Railway, last week, formally begun work on extending Churchgate station to accommodate 15-car local trains that will have 33% more carrying capacity than 12-car trains.

Commuters on the line, however, will be more confused as trains in three different combinations - nine-car, 12-car and 15-car - all with different coach alignments will be plying on the route. Till now there was just one 15-car train, but with the station being extended, more trains will soon begin plying.

“Churchgate station was extended to accommodate 12-car trains about 20 years ago and they are putting a roof over it now. As they are completing it, they are also extending the platform for 15-car trains. The roof always seems to fall short,” said Rajgopal Pillai, a senior citizen.

“Longer trains will accommodate more passengers and we plan to bring one 15-car train to Churchgate by January,” a senior official said. Commuters have, however, given a thumbs down to WR’ 15-car train and asked railways to complete the conversion of nine-car to 12-car first and then “dream” of 15 cars.

The ambitious 15-car train on WR, touted as the longest suburban train in the country, is completing a year this month. WR engineers said that the ‘long’ train is delaying all other trains and collapsing the existing suburban timetable.

“It just does not fit into the system and it leads to more complications while negotiating crossovers and while starting and terminating it at stations,” another railway official, associated with it said.

X-mas gift for commuters
Working overnight, the Western Railway has almost completed work on putting the huge roof over Churchgate station. The structure will be ready by Christmas.