Mumbai: In response to the growing demand for air-conditioned local train services, Western Railway (WR) has decided to introduce 13 additional AC local train services on the Mumbai suburban section, starting from November 27, 2024.

According to WR, these new AC services will replace existing non-AC suburban services, hence the total number of suburban train services on WR remains unchanged. With this introduction, the total number of AC services will increase from 96 to 109 on weekdays and from 52 to 65 on Saturdays and Sundays. Daily average of AC local train services on WR is around 1.25 lakh.

"The decision to introduce additional AC services is aimed at easing the crowd and providing a more comfortable travel experience for commuters. Out of the these 13 AC services, 6 will operate in the UP direction and 7 in the down direction. Ten services will be fast and three will be slow services" said an official.

In the up direction, there are 2 services each between Virar – Churchgate & Bhayandar – Churchgate and one service each between Virar – Bandra & Bhayandar – Andheri. Similarly, in the down direction, there are two services between Churchgate – Virar, one service each between Churchgate – Bhayandar, Andheri – Virar, Bandra – Bhayandar, Mahalaxmi – Borivali and Borivali – Bhayandar.

According to WR, these proposed 13 services will run as AC services on all days of the week. There will be no change in the total number of services, i.e. the count of local services is 1406 including the 109 AC local train services.

On 27th November, 2024, out of these proposed 13 AC Locals, the first local service will run from Churchgate at 12:34 noon and thereafter, the regular run of all the newly introduced AC locals will run as per the regular time table.