The Western Railway (WR) has recently approached the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) to reduce the time taken in opening and closing automatic doors of air-conditioned (AC) local trains, so as to shorten halts.

A regular local train halts at every station for nearly 20 seconds. However, the AC local halts for close to a minute owing to their doors, delaying regular suburban trains on the same corridor. HT had reported on this issue in February this year.

The WR has asked the ICF in Chennai to make the changes for the new trains expected in the city by March 2019. The time frame the WR has asked for is similar to the one on the city’s Metro corridor, where a train halts for 40 seconds.

“The AC local cannot move ahead without the doors being closed. There is a local train every three minutes on the WR and whenever the doors take time to open or close, it delays trains behind them,” said a senior WR official.

“We have written to the ICF. The time taken by Metro coach is accurate. Suggestions had been taken from commuters as well as railway officials from the operating department, and then sent to the ICF,” said AK Gupta, general manager, WR.

Recently, the Central Railway (CR) had also approached ICF to change the height of the new trains.

The operation of AC trains on the CR mainline will be a problem because of the height of the trains and the bridges on the route. The height of the trains is slightly more than that of the regular suburban trains.

First Published: Nov 06, 2018 00:31 IST