Title - 11/7 coach chugs, commuters indifferent

“Oh, is it?” asked two commuters and stepped down at the next station.

This was the reaction of a few commuters when told that they were travelling in the 864-A train compartment, one of the coaches of the 11/7 train blasts that is still running on the Central Railway (CR). Others travelling in it did not bother to react, or just raised their eyebrows.

Commuter Bhavin Gedgia said he did not bother which coach it was. “I only know that this is an old train and that there are no announcements in it.”

864-A was the damaged coach of the 12-car Churchgate-Virar local that was torn apart at the Matunga Road station. The Matunga blast, at 6.30pm, was the last one in the 11/7 serial blasts. On Wednesday, it ran as a Dadar-Kalyan train and did three trips after that.

“Mumbai’s local trains have given a fitting reply to terrorism. It is a matter of pride that even six years after the blasts, the train is still running,” said a rail official at the Kalwa car shed, where the coach is maintained. “We have refrained from putting up any board or signage related to the blast as commuters would react to it in different ways. It is best run silent.”

“The coach, restored at a cost of Rs1.2 crore, was transferred to the CR last year after the Western Railway converted to alternating current. Even on CR, the coach runs as a first class one,” he said. “The coach can run for one more year, after which we will decide whether it should be scrapped or not,” the official added.

The coach had been originally made by Jessop Company in Kolkata and all the materials required for restoration had been bought from them. “After it was restored, it went through extensive tests before it was declared fit to run. Only when it cleared all the set parameters, was it put back into service,” said another railway official.