In the coming months, people will be able to order tickets on the Neral-Matheran line through the Indian Railways’ central booking system.
More rail services will be available to the hill station, and the toy train may be expanded from six to eight carriages. Central Railway has these plans for Mumbai’s favourite weekend getaway even as it reconstructs the entire 20-kilometer line.
According to officials, the Central Railway is working on numerous criteria to improve the existing Aman Lodge-Matheran narrow gauge train service.
Work on laying optic fibre cables was also nearing completion, and once that was done, Matheran station would appear on the Passenger Reservation System [PRS] map, and people would be able to book mini train tickets online,” a railway official added.
Prerana Sawant, president of Matheran Municipal Council, said her colleagues met the divisional railway manager in Mumbai last week seeking improvement in services. “They informed him that in this vacation period, the tourist crowd has increased manifold and they requested the railways to run at least 10 services between Aman Lodge and Matheran throughout the week like it is done on Saturdays and Sundays now. It is the only major means of transport and attraction and will help boost the economy,” said Sawant.
Representatives from the Matheran municipal council also suggested that the railways increase the number of coaches from six to eight, and railway officials assured them that trials would be conducted soon to see if an eight-coach train could be operated.
According to the most recent statistics, Central Railway transported 3,06,763 passengers and 42,613 packages between Aman Lodge and Matheran in the fiscal year 2021-2022, with a total of 16 services on weekdays and 20 services on weekends.