Trans-Harbour rly commuters fume over revised timetable

THANE: Commuters travelling on the Trans-Harbour route are upset with the recent revision in the timetable which, they claim, focuses more on Panvel route, leaving commuters travelling on the Sanpada-Vashi sector with less services.

Those travelling between Thane and Vashi said that the announcement of new services on this route has not made any difference to them as the railways have started back to back services towards Belapur, Panvel, leaving a huge time gap for Vashi trains. Passengers are now demanding that the railways schedule alternate services to Panvel and Vashi at least during the peak hours. This will cause less inconvenience to commuters.

A glance at the revised timetable shows that during the peak hours the frequency of Thane-Nerul trains are more but there is a gap of 20 to 25 minutes for Vashi services.

The Trans-Harbour services between Thane and Nerul, Panvel or Vashi operate at an interval of five to 10 minutes.

"There was a 9:37am train earlier which has now been changed to 9:53am. Some commuters who travel from Kalyan and Dombivli already have less frequency of trains at that time. With the revised timing, it will make life difficult for them. As per the revised timetable, the wait time for a Thane-Vashi train has increased by over 15 minutes as more trains have been introduced on the Panvel sector," complained Meghana Nabar, a regular commuter from Thane.

Meanwhile, the Railways have justified their move saying that they have been checking the trend of services at high density stations. "The revisions has been made based on the number of ticket and season pass sales at a particular station. There is high demand towards Nerul and Panvel during peak hours so we have to operate more trains," said a railway official from Thane.