In an attempt to attract more commuters to travel on the AC local, the Western Railway (WR) has planned to run it on Saturdays as well from February end. At present, 12 services of the AC local operate only during weekdays. Confirming the same, Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Western Railway, said: “We are looking at this option of running the AC local on Saturdays.”
Sources said that this is being done to see if people who have A holiday on Saturday would come forward to take a ride inside the AC local. Moreover, they are working out if this local can be operated during peak hours on Saturdays when it is less crowded. The details about the number of services and train timings are yet to be decided.
Right now, the authorities are inspecting issues cropping up, especially technical ones. For this, the AC local undergoes checks and maintenance at Mahalaxmi workshop on weekends. A senior WR official said earlier last week, they had to withdraw AC service completely due to technical failure.
