Railway think tank rules out Metro-like seats in locals

Mumbai’s local trains will not get longitudinally aligned seats — with commuters’ backs facing the windows.

The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), the railway think tank on the suburban network, said there will be no changes in the existing arrangement of seats.

Around 70 lakh commuters travel by suburban trains in the city.

“The longitudinal seats, which are planned for Metro trains, will not be feasible for long journeys where people travel 60km between Churchgate and Virar. The existing arrangement where three to four persons can sit comfortably on each side will continue,” confirmed Rakesh Saksena, managing director, MRVC.

Earlier, the railway agency had planned to carry out a survey on changing the seating arrangements in trains.

The London Tube and the Delhi Metro have longitudinally aligned seats.

The railways are manufacturing a fresh set of trains under the second phase of the Rs5,300-crore Mumbai Urban Transport Project, which is jointly funded by the state government, the Indian Railways and the World Bank.

The MRVC has placed an order for 72 twelve-car trains for which electrical equipment will be supplied by global firm Bombardier.
In the late 1960s, the Western Railway had introduced an all-standee train with less seats. But, the feedback was not encouraging.

Recently, the WR had introduced three coaches (701-703) with less seats as an experiment. In this  train, only two commuters would be able to sit on one seat and there would be more space for standees, thus carrying more passengers.

An average nine-car train has a seating capacity of 876 and 1,752 standees — a total of 2,628. 

A 12-car train can seat 1,168 and accommodate 2,336 standees that is a total of 3,504 passengers and a 33% rise in carrying capacity compared to a nine-care train.