Western Railway has offered a surprise Gift to their regular commuters on Christmas day. At 10.30 am in the morning the First A.C. Train on western railway began its journey from Borivali to Churchgate at 10.30 am, when BJP leaders Vinod Tawde, Ashish Shelar and Kirit Somaiya were present. Though this fast train took halt at stations like Andheri, Bandra, dadar and Mumbai Central, there were no clear instructions about issue of ticket rates at some stations.
When a traveler inquired at Mumbai central Station for issue of local AC train ticket to Borivali , the clerk at the counter was not sure about the cost. So, after confirming about the cost over phone, he issued a Single ticket of Rs. 165/- for travel between Mumbai Central to Borivali, which is little more than the first Class ticket of Rs. 140/- for the same journey. When the First class Monthly pass for Churchgate- Borivali travel costs Rs. 745/- per month, this AC train pass will cost Rs.1640/- which is very much on the higher side.
On the first day travel on this route, there was no checking of tickets and many commuters took a free ride, as there were no proper announcements made on Public address system at Mumbai Central Station, where the voice of the announcer was cracking. There is not much difference between the recently introduced new local trains and this train, except for AC , broad windows and automatic door opening and closing and few devices introduced during emergency. But, the cost is very much on the higher side, compared to the cost of ticket of metro and Mono rail. Now, it remains to be seen how the commuters would respond to this service, which is limited to 3 up and 3 down trains that too during non peak hours.