Railways remains committed to keeping Mumbai’s complex local train network safe, reliable, and capable of handling rising demand

Central Railway operates around 1810 services across its Main Line, Harbour Line, and Trans-Harbour corridors daily. File Pic/Ashish Raje

For over twenty million Mumbaikars, the local train is not just transport — it is routine, resilience, and reliability. The suburban railway network here is more than infrastructure; it is the city’s pulse. Every morning before dawn, platforms fill with people chasing livelihoods and aspirations. Every night, the last local carries home a city that refuses to slow down.

Keeping this vast system safe, reliable, and capable of handling rising demand is one of the most complex urban mobility challenges anywhere in the world. As the city grows denser and faster, Western and Central Railway are undertaking a quiet but determined transformation to expand capacity, modernise stations, improve safety, and make everyday commuting more humane. Over the last few years, we have undertaken one of the most intensive phases of upgradation in Mumbai’s suburban rail history — not through isolated projects, but through a coordinated, system-wide approach.

Mumbai’s suburban railway operates at one of the highest densities globally. Western Railway (WR) runs over 1400 suburban services daily, while Central Railway (CR) operates around 1810 services across its Main Line, Harbour Line, and Trans-Harbour corridors. With limited land and ever-growing demand, capacity expansion requires precision planning.

Working towards realising the vision of the Prime Minister’s Viksit Bharat, all efforts are being undertaken to develop railway infrastructure in Mumbai. Multiple projects worth more than Rs 8,000 crore are currently underway to transform the way our esteemed commuters travel in our suburban system by adding critical capacity and extending reach across congested corridors. The Borivli-Virar and Virar-Dahanu Road expansions will segregate suburban and mainline traffic on WR’s northern stretches, enabling significantly more local services. The Panvel-Karjat corridor will create a vital link, reducing travel time by nearly 30 minutes while easing pressure on the main Central line. The........

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