CRs new train to Shirdi

The Central Railway has decided to start a new train to Shirdi that would reach the destination in six hours and 40 minutes.

The Central Railway (CR) has decided to start a new train to Shirdi that would reach the destination in six hours and 40 minutes. According to Shriniwas Mudgerikar,chief spokesperson,Central Railway,the new Mumbai-Shirdi weekly train would be introduced from March 20. The train will take the Nasik-Manmad route,which is around 342 km in distance. The CST-Shirdi passenger train,which which covers 452 km and travels via the Pune-Daund-Manmad route takes around 13 hours to reach the destination.

But CR officials said,despite taking more time to reach Shirdi,it is very popular among the passengers. Shirdi is considered to be a popular shrine and thousands of pilgrims visit the place everyday. The number of passengers who visit the shrine shoot up on Thursdays,holidays and during weekends.

The Mumbai-Shirdi passenger train caters to people on Pune route while the new train would be beneficial for commuters from Mumbai. It would save their time. The new train would starting from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) only stop at Dadar,Kalyan,Igatpuri,Nasik,Kopargaon and Sai Nagar Shirdi, said Mudgerikar. The bus journey too takes around seven hours from Mumbai to Shirdi.

Story continues below this ad

The train no 0117 would depart CST at 10.20 pm and would reach Shirdi at around 5 am. The same train (0118) would leave Shirdi for Mumbai at around 7.30 am.

We plan to start this service on the grounds of Mumbai-Goa weekend services that take passengers to Goa in 9 hours. We are starting the new Shirdi train on an experimental basis. We would increase the services during the weekends after analysing the response, said Mudgerikar.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram