The Central Railway (CR) is taking different measures to sustain the Matheran Toy Train service that has been running into losses. These include strengthening the tracks, extending services to later in the evening and renovating the railway station.
Currently, the railways incur an annual expense of Rs. 16 crore in maintaining and operating the diesel locomotives. The fare box collection is only Rs. 30-40lakh.
“It is impossible to operate the services with such a high investment and such low returns. Therefore, we will try different ways to increase the revenue. We are also working on reducing the cost of operations by making technical improvements,” said Subodh Jain, general manager, CR.
"Strengthening of the tracks will be done at Rs 2 crore within a year. If adequate number of coaches and engines are available, we will able to run faster services with more capacity per trains." he added.
The railways are trying to increase the speed and capacity of service by adding more coaches and a rear engine to the existing train. Currently, a five-coach train runs along the Neral-Matheran stretch. The administration is planning to extend this to eight coaches.
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