Due to ongoing protest by commuters against the newly introduced 10 AC local trains by the Central Railway by replacing non AC local trains the authorities on Wednesday evening announced temporary cancellation of these AC train from Thursday.For three consecutive days, commuters from Kalwa and Badlapur were protesting against the increased services of AC locals, which led to overcrowding of non-AC trains.On Wednesday, former cabinet minister Jitendra Awhad raised the issue in the Maharashtra State Assembly after which Shrikant Shinde MP met Central Railway General Manager Anil Kumar Lahoti to discuss the issue.
“For Badlapur commuters, travelling from CSMT at 5:30pm is a nightmare as they have no option but to board the Khopoli train, as the Badlapur local was turned into an AC local. While the Khopoli train is overcrowded, the Badlapur AC train goes empty. Hence, we requested the railways to think over the same and do the needful as not everyone can afford the AC local fare,” said Shrikant Shinde.NCP MP Supriya Sule also tweeted about the issue, saying, “Overcrowding leads to inconvenience to commuters, running such services during peak hours irks commuters. Cancel this and instead resume the regular local trains.”After the Central Railway announcement of resuming the regular suburban local trains in place of the AC trains, Awhad said, “There is a lot of anger in the minds of commuters travelling on CR and WR, they do not want the AC trains to function during peak hours from 8am to 10:30am. The decision to change the AC locals to regular locals is the victory of an initiative taken forward by all of us.”Meanwhile, a signature campaign has been initiated by some commuters on Wednesday in favour of AC local trains.