Thane’s diamond-shaped intersections will be replaced

Central Railway (CR) plans to soon remodel the Thane yard by removing diamond shaped crossings where two tracks intersect at the Kalyan and the Chhatrapaji Shivaji Terminus (CST) ends. This will help avoid derailments. At present, the sharp track crossings lead to slowing down of trains in order to negotiate the crossings which have sharp curves. Over 100 trains pass through Thane station every day. The station has 10 platforms for two corridors of the fast tracks and two of the slow tracks and also for the Trans Harbour network. Once the diamond shaped crossings will be removed and replaced with gentler turns, suburban trains will be able to move at double their speed, i.e., 30kmph.

This move of the CR will help in saving at least one minute per train. Owing to speed restrictions, at present acceleration and de-acceleration of the trains get affected but after the remodeling, if the time saved proved to be good enough, newer services might be introduced by the CR.