Certain long-distance trains on the Western Railway (WR) are now set to finish journeys faster, as the administration is speeding up 100
trains that include about 52 trains originating/terminating or passing through Mumbai from July 1.
The journey time of these trains have been reduced by anything between five and 115 minutes. The premier trains including 12908 Nizamuddin-Bandra Maharashtra Sampark Kranti Express and 14707 Bikaner-Bandra Ranakpur Express trains have been speeded up by 75 minutes, while 12954 Nizamuddin-Mumbai Central August Kranti Rajdhani Express will be sped up by 25 minutes. Similarly, 12926 Paschim Express will reach Bandra at 2.45 pm, 30 minutes before its present time.
“One of the reasons why we will be able to cut down on the journey time is the recent conversion of the WR traction from Direct Current (DC) to Alternate Current (AC),” said Sharat Chandrayan, chief public relations officer, WR, adding, “Earlier, long-distance trains had to change the loco compatibility to ply on the DC traction before approaching the Mumbai section; this was done at Baroda or Valsad in Gujarat. Now, the loco will not change as the entire section has been converted to AC, thus saving time.”