Title - More fast locals, 15-car rakes on CR from Oct 15

Mumbai: From October 15, Central Railway’s new suburban timetable will make travel faster and morecomfortableon Main line. Besides introducing 15-car services, CR has decided to increase the number of fast localsfrom 206 to233.
    The number of services on Main linewillincreasefrom 785 to 803.Of these,16 willbe15-car, whichwill run on thefastcorridor between CST and Kalyan stations. CR’s chief public relations officer Vidyadhar Malegaonkar said, “Eight are new 15-car services while the remaining serviceshavebeen upgraded from 12-car. We have designed the timetable in such a way that four of the five new services introduced during the peakhourswillbe15-car ones.”
    The additional three coaches in the 15-car service will be reserved for first class (ladies), second class (ladies) and the third coach for first class (general) andsecondclass(general). A section has also been providedfor disabledcommuters.
    The number of fastservices will go up by nearly 30%. While doing so, CR has ensured that thosetravelling on theslowcorridors are notshort-changed.
    An official said, “The loss has been compensated in 27 semi-fast services. Of the 18 new services, ten 12-car trains will run on the slow corridor. It includes, two new services from Thane to Badlapur and Ambarnath and one from Kurla to Titwala.” CR feels curtailment of semi-fast services will improve punctuality.