Beginning Thursday, the Western Railway (WR) will add 15,000 passengers and approximately 3,000 seats to its daily carrying capacity. A dozen 12-car local services will be converted into 15-car services to accomplish this. According to officials, this will improve carrying capacity by 25%.
According to a WR official, "six services in both directions will be converted, with six of these on the fast line." He said with this, the total number of 15-car services will increase from 132 to 144 in WR’s Mumbai suburban section. However, there will be no change in the total number of services, 1,383, including 79 AC local services.
According to another official, each coach has a carrying capacity of over 450 passengers, with seats for 90–98. Every day, an estimated 30 lakh passengers use local WR services in the suburban section. According to GRP statistics from 2022, 190 passengers died after falling off moving trains in the suburban section. The majority of these were caused by overcrowding.
Meanwhile, passengers have welcomed the decision to expand and said it will help control overcrowding.