Darjeeling Mail - উত্তরবঙ্গের ঐতিহ্য - Joydeep Roy

Railways is planning to boost passenger convenience and its revenue. Travel in AC local trains in Mumbai is proposed to be on the lines of metro, like DMRC, Mumbai metro. Now that'll be the base fare for ordinary class.

With 100% electrification, 100% HOG will follow. It will take some years, but will happen. With that, railways will have power to run fully AC trains -- both M/E and passengers (MEMU included) with full AC rakes. In future all services of IR can become AC only. And we may see hawkers and...
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beggars in A3E, A3, A2 and A1 along with unnamed AD/AG. I personally find this great since IR has been allowing over a million serving staff (and their dependents) to travel and eat free in AC class. This includes retired railway employees with their dependents and dead railway employees' dependents and care givers. We as honest travelers and tax payers are paying for this largesse.

This will allow IR to raise fares. And that will happen in stages as and when a route gets full AC rake.

The process has begun. All new local (EMU) rakes coming to Mumbai will be AC. By next 2 decades, all trains will be AC. Rest coaches being converted to carry goods!

Finally. the greatest news to upgrade the cheapest travel in the whole world.