RailEnquiry

PUNE: As part of the revised time-table for local trains likely to be implemented from next week, three local trains will depart from the Shivajinagar railway station instead of the Pune station and will run up to Talegaon instead of Lonavla and back on an experimental basis.

The Pune railway administration said that steps are being taken to revise train schedules to benefit hundreds of daily passengers who travel between Shivajinagar and Talegaon stations.

At present, there are about 48 daily trips of local trains wherein as many as 50,000 passengers travel between Pune station and Lonavla.

The proposal to terminate some local trains at Shivajinagar station came after general manager of central railway S K Jain visited the Pune station in February and March. Jain said that some changes were essential to help increase frequency of local train services on the route and reduce congestion at the Pune station.

The administration said the revised timings would help save 15 to 20 minutes per trip. This would help run additional local trains on the Talegaon route and also reduce the burden on the Pune station.

A senior official from the railway administration said a proposal for the revised time-table of local trains was worked out and submitted to the head office for approval and further suggestions about a couple of months ago.

"We expect a decision on it in the next few days. Once the directives are received, we will publish the time-table for the benefit of passengers and it will be implemented by next week. We expect to introduce three local trains from Shivajinagar up to Talegaon and back in the first phase," an official added.

According to the administration, there is enough space at Shivajinagar station to accommodate the departure and arrival of suburban locals. Some changes in the signaling system are being introduced to meet the requirements for terminating the local trains there.

Sources said that during non-peak hours, there were not many passengers on the Talegaon-Lonavla stretch which is why it was decided that some local trains would terminate at Talegaon.