By Apurva Bhatt

On Friday, when CR experimented with speed restriction at nine spots as suggested by commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) Chetan Bakshi for the DC to AC conversion, there was chaos all around, and  it had a terrible impact on punctuality between 8am and 11am as all trains were nearly 40 minutes late. If this is the indication of the things to come than commuters better be prepared.

Central Railway's main line section will switch to 25KV Alternating Current (AC) from June 7 but commuters can expect services to be delayed for the next few months , as speed restrictions have been imposed at a few places to prevent mishaps.  After the conversion, Central Railways will have to cut train speed to 30kmph and 15kmph at several spots.

 Chief public relations officer of CR, Narendra Patil, said, "Speed restrictions were removed from four places while at others it was increased to 30kmph for Siemens rakes too." 

CR runs 825 services on the Main line with 75 rakes, including 45 Siemens ones. While Siemens rakes can clock 100 kmph, the retrofitted rakes can achieve a maximum speed of 80 kmph. 

A CR official said, "The speed restrictions will throw schedules out of gear and the situation can be aggravated if there is any failure in a section. CR trains anyway have to deal with speed restrictions because of some or the other form of repair or maintenance work." He said services were likely to be at least 10 to 15 minutes late even with speed relaxations. 

CR has decided to undertake a block from 12am to 6am on Sunday. Consequently, last services in Up and Down directions on June 6 will run before 11.20pm. On Sunday too, train services for CST will be available only after 6.15am. CR will also run special diesel locomotives from CST and Dadar between 11.05pm to 12.25am on the suburban sector. In the morning it will operate a similar locomotive at 5.40am from CST. The switchover to AC will also affect the arrival and departure of long-distance trains on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.