WR links Churchgate - Dahanu

Electric multiple unit (EMU) suburban services on the Western Railway (WR) will cover the 124 km between Churchgate and Dahanu Road from now.
On Tuesday, railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is scheduled to inaugurate local train operations between the two stations. There will be 20 services to and from Dahanu Road daily.
So far, EMU services on WR would run only on the 60 km stretch between Churchgate and Virar.
Bansal will flag off the first local train from Dahanu Road to Churchgate in the presence of CM Prithviraj Chavan at 10.10 am. The train will arrive at Churchgate at 12.58 pm.
WR chief public relations officer Sharat Chandrayan said full-scale operations will commence from Wednesday. “On April 16, besides the train flagged off by the minister, two services each will operate in Up and Down direction between Virar and Dahanu Road and Dadar and Dahanu Road,” Chandrayan said.
Of the 20 EMU services to and from Dahanu, 15 are new services. Two shuttle trains running between Dahanu Road and Borivli have been replaced by EMUs and extended up to Churchgate. Two EMU services between Dadar and Virar and one between Churchgate and Virar will extend till Dahanu.
With these changes, EMU operations will cater to eight more stations. Besides the EMU services, four mainline electric multiple unit services (MEMU) that run between Dahanu Road and Virar have been extended to Dadar.
WR had planned to begin services up to Dahanu by the end of 2012-13, but the launch was delayed.
“These services will run as slow trains between Dahanu and Virar, but convert to fast on the Churchgate-Borivli stretch. The number of services, too, will increase, depending on the availability of rakes,” a senior WR official said.