RailEnquiry

 Railway Board is planning to introduce air conditioned coaches in every local trains. Instead of increasing number of full AC trains, railway will add AC coaches to existing suburban trains. Current plan is to introduce 12 car trains with 6 AC and 6 non AC coaches.

A Railways official said, "The tender will specify that the AC train’s software should be compatible with that of at least one manufacturers of existing rakes."

Siemens and Bombardier make most of the rakes used in suburban trains. Railway is consulting on technical feasibility before the decision was taken.

The other problem railway might encounter is passenger congestion on the part of platform on non-AC coaches. Railway is obviously expecting more crowd on the platform-part where non-AC coaches will approach. To encounter this, it is working on measures to regulate passenger traffic.

The partly AC local was announced by Union Minister of Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal while inaugurating the Andheri-Goregaon Harbour Line extension on March 29. He had also said the AC coaches will have two passenger classes.