Soon, Drive Your Car Onto A Train From Mumbai To Goa
Are you someone who lives in Mumbai and loves to visit Goa during holidays? Well, if you are a Mumbai resident, there is a piece of good news for you. Recently, it has been announced that the Konkan Railway is planning to introduce a new Roll-on Roll-off (Ro-Ro) service. This will specifically be for private vehicles, including cars and SUVs. Under this first-of-its-kind pilot project, travel between Mumbai and Goa will become easier as car owners will be able to transport their vehicles on a train.
This initiative will help the travellers in reducing the stress of driving through the extremely congested Mumbai-Goa highway (NH-66). Generally, during holidays and weekends, the travel time on this 600+ km highway increases a lot. So now, with the new Roll-on and Roll-off initiative by Konkan Railways, travellers will be able to enjoy a relaxing train journey while making sure that their vehicle gets safely transported along with them.
When will Roll-on and Roll-off operations start?
As per Konkan Railway’s announcement, this new pilot service will be tested during the high-demand Ganpati festival season (around August–September). During this season, NH-66 experiences a lot of traffic between Mumbai and the Konkan region. With this trial, Konkan Railway will assess the technical feasibility, demand, along with safety protocols.
Also, pricing models will be checked during this pilot service program. Additionally, the feedback from this experiment will guide decisions on whether to continue, expand, or modify the service for future use. Presently, the Konkan Railway already runs a well-established Ro-Ro freight operation, where large trucks are driven onto wagons at one station and offloaded at another.
All of these trucks are currently loaded via ramps onto specially designed low-floor wagons. As for the driver and the co-driver, they remain in the truck cabins during transit and also sleep in it throughout the journey. Presently, this service currently operates only between Kolad (Maharashtra) and Mangalore (Karnataka). If the pilot program becomes a success, the congestion on NH-66 will reduce.
Challenges that could be faced by Konkan Railways
As mentioned above, at the moment, Konkan Railways provides this service for trucks. However, when this service begins for cars and SUVs, there could be some challenges which will need to be addressed. Unlike trucks, cars and SUVs will require different loading angles and ramp designs. Also, there will be a need for safety restraints during transit to prevent damage to the vehicles.
The present Ro-Ro wagons have been designed to accommodate large-dimension trucks which come with higher ground clearance. So, when the service begins for cars and SUVs, technical modifications will become necessary to accommodate smaller, low-floor vehicles. Currently, the officials are also evaluating whether passengers can stay inside their vehicles, like truck drivers do.
If they won’t be allowed inside the vehicle during the journey, then Konkan Railways will need to provide a separate passenger coach as well. Other safety protocols could include wheel-locking systems, low-slope ramps, dedicated entry/exit lanes, and height clearance checks to prevent any operational mishaps during the transit.
Currently, the travel time between Mumbai and Goa is 11 hours and 41 minutes. Most likely, the travel time with the train will increase slightly. However, the convenience will also increase, and the stress of driving will get reduced.