Title - CR also moves on to fast track

Mumbai : The Central Railway (CR) has commissioned its first self- made Direct Current (DC) to Alternative Current (AC) rake on Sunday morning. The conversion of the overhead head equipment was completed in Sanpada Carshed on Saturday.

Although the train will be running from Lonavala to Pune, the conversion will help the CR officials monitor and judge the increase in speed once the train finishes its run. The estimated decrease in time is by 10 minutes. It currently takes an hour to reach Pune from Lonavala. AC is very important as the CR plans to run AC trains from Kurla to Kalyan and Kasara soon.
The CR has been working to change their line from DC to AC and has completed a test charge from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) to Kalyan a month back. The CR hopes to complete this switch this year. Currently, the CR is running partial DC-AC rakes, which means a train from CST to Andheri or Bandra switches to AC between Vadala and Kings Circle.

AC trains will help increase the speed of the suburban locals and decrease breakdown of the overhead equipment disrupting services. The conversion will also cut down the loss in transmission of energy thereby saving electricity.

The CR, which will be getting 30 Bombadier AC rakes to convert the CR main to AC, is changing the overhead equipment of 15 DC rakes since it will need more once the line switches to AC. CR’s Chief Public Relations officer, Atul Rane, said, “People will reach Pune faster by trains and the lack of AC rakes which was foreseen once we shift to AC can be solved to certain extent.” “We have completed work on this rake and the overhead equipment of another 14 rakes are being changed in various carsheds on the CR,” he added. The CR has been waiting for safety clearances from the Railway Safety Office in order to start the LTT to Kasara and Karjat services on AC. A source who does not want to be named said, “DC trains have a life of 25 years and many of them still have 10 years of life on them, these are the ones that the CR has decided to convert to pure AC.”

“This is because the 30 Bombadier rakes are just not enough to keep up with the number of rakes and services that will be required once the system is converted to AC traction.”