CR may hand over its AC train to WR, but it’s only to run trials

Mumbai: Central Railway (CR) may have to hand over the Rs 54-crore air-conditioned local to Western Railway to undertake trials as its height makes it impossible to run on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus-Kurla section.
The rake was scheduled to run on Western Railway (WR), but Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu decided to hand it over to CR for trials. Railway board member (rolling stock) Hemant Kumar, who was on a visit to the city on Wednesday, said that the trials of the rake should be undertaken on WR, where there is no issue of height.
A CR official said that a final call had to be taken by the board, as CR had expressed its reservations on the height issue.But WR is not keen on having the rake due to of fears of unreliability of the technology.
The AC local is 4,295mm high, compared to 4,257mm for the Siemens rakes and 4,295mm for the Bombardier ones. CR has British era bridges, whose height is too low, so running this local on the Main line is impossible. The former CR general manager had hence decided to undertake trials on the Thane-Panvel trans-harbour corridor.
CR officials said carrying out trials of the local, whose technology is unreliable, was fraught with danger. An official said, “Once the rake gets stuck on the trans-harbour, it will mean closure of the network for a while, as it has only single Up and Down lines. WR and CR’s Main line have four lines (two each for slow and fast), which permits diversion of trains to either of the lines in case the rake gets stuck.”
The static trails on the Harbour line were slated for last week but the rake is not yet fit as Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and Integral Coach Factory (ICF) are unable to resolve a technical fault. The static trials take two weeks and dynamic trials are held without passengers after that. During the trial, the track worthiness of the new train and its dynamic behaviour in various conditions regarding safety, stability and quality rides are checked. Similarly, emergency brake distance trials are carried out to test braking potential. The dynamic trials are carried out over at least three months.
The train will be deployed only after the commissioner of railway safety’s clearance.