CR Harbour line snippets

The Central Railway (CR) is planning to introduce 12 car train services on the Harbour Line for which it is conducting a feasibility study.“We are conducting a feasibility study for introducing 12 car services on the Harbour Line,” confirmed Sriniwas Mudgerikar, chief spokesperson for the CR. “Introducing 12 car services on this line is the need of hour as the areas on this line are experiencing rapid urbanisation. Satellite cities like Navi Mumbai and Panvel are seeing a demographic change. Plus, introducing fast train on these services has still not been conceptualised and introducing 12 car train services is the only option,” said a senior rail official.
Currently 12 car services, which include the new swanky rakes, run on the main line of the CR- mostly on the stations beyond Kalyan.
The feasibility report is required to be done as the current platforms on the Harbour Line are meant for 9 car trains. If 12 car trains are introduced it would be a daunting task for the railway because almost all the platforms are meant for the 9 car trains and needs to be extended.
The Harbour Line, which runs parallel to the Thane creek starts from the CST to Panvel and from Turbhe to Nerul and has over 29 stations. There are many stations like the Sandhurst Road, Cotton Green and Reay Road which are built on an elevated deck. But only 9 car train can run on it as platform is one if the issues.
“We are also conducting trials on the Thane-Nerul services which should also start soon,” added Mudgerikar. The CR had completed the work on the Thane-Nerul last month. Currently, another section on the Harbour line commences from Thane terminates at the Vashi station, but it would now terminate at Nerul as well. Plans to extend the service from Thane to Panvel is also in store.