Even as ac trains continue to receive poor passenger response, 34 new trains to start plying from today

On an average the daily ridership on the central railway AC trains is as low as 2,500 – 3,000 is much lower than the western railway AC services with approximately 7,500-10,000 ridership.

Commuters say that the high fare and the poor frequency of these locals is the reason behind low ridership.

Railways is expecting improvement in ridership by increasing the frequency, however, commuters claim that unless the fares are reduced low turnouts will continue.

“There is a need to decrease the fare of AC services as it’s higher than the first class and the common man cannot afford it,” said Rajesh Ghanghav, a member of the Railway passenger association adding that unless fare is revised the new train services won’t be of much use and instead of AC they should have started the normal non AC local trains which would have increased the frequency of the local trains and reducing the crowd in the trains Which is important considering the covid situation.

Another passenger said not only the daily tickets but even the monthly pass fare is also very high for ac train services.

As per the fare structure, while the first class ticket of CSMT to Kalyan is Rs 165, the AC ticket on the same stretch is Rs 210. Similarly, the monthly pass on the same stretch for first class costs Rs 1,105, but for the AC the same pass costs Rs 2,135 which is almost double. A railway official said the Railway board is likely to decide on the issue of high fares soon.

After the addition of these 34 trains, the total number of AC train services will increase to 44 from 10 services daily and the frequency of the trains are also likely to increase.

After the commissioning of 5th and 6th railway line between Thane and Diva railway station creating space for running more train services, 36 new local train services are starting from Saturday of which 34 will be AC on the Central Railways main line.