Harbour line may get white and purple rakes soon


Mumbai: Harbour line commuters between Andheri and CST who have always felt sidelined as they have been thrust up with only old brown and yellow rakes have a reason to smile; by March, they may have the new Siemens rakes shuttling on their lines.
    This projected move is interlinked with complete traction power switchover from 1,500 volts direct current (DC) to 25,000 volts alternating current (AC) on the Western Line, which is in turn interconnected with the arrival of the balance 30 plus rakes from the first phase of the Mumbai Urban Transport project (MUTP-I).
    For WR commuters, the good news is that 27 new rakes will be pumped into its network by March, which means that nearly every rake on the WR will be a white and purple one. Since WR would replace its old DC rakes with AC-DC ones, it would ‘donate’ 15 rakes to its counterpart, Central Railway (CR), while retrofitting the 10. Officials said the CR fleet is old and many of the transferred rakes would be used to help the older ones to retire.
    Retrofitting is the process in which the electrics in a DC rake are changed to make them AC-DC compatible. The train’s interiors are changed to match the new Siemens rakes while the coach shell is retained. A train which has a residual life of over 10 years is eligible for the process ,which costs the railways around Rs 4.5 crore per rake. Retrofitment of WR rakes will start in December.
    The deadline for the entire WR suburban section to switch to AC has now been pushed back to anytime between December and March.
    “WR’s priority is to replace its old DC rakes so that DCAC is successful. We will then look at converting all its services from 9-car to 12-car,’’ said chief PRO, WR, S S Gupta.
Vital stats
WR’s fleet strength: 86 rakes At any given time, 76 are in services while the rest are on under maintenance
51 new white and purple AC-DC rakes have already been added to its fleet while another 27 are expected by March.
WR will retain 8 of Alstom AC-DC rakes which are lesser than 10 years old, retrofit 10 and transfer 15 to CR.

 

Source: Times of India, 27th August 2010, Friday.