India, April 11 -- Turns out, Mumbai's commuters don't mind shelling out more for a cooler ride. Reflecting their preference for comfort over cost, the Central Railway (CR) will roll out 14 more air-conditioned (AC) services from April 16, replacing the older non-AC ones.

The popularity of AC trains is rising on both the Central and Western suburban railway lines. For the month of March, over last three years, the Central Railway saw a 73% jump in the number of commuters using AC trains, while the Western Railway saw a corresponding 67% increase. In real terms, the numbers rose from 48,989 in March 2022-23 to 84,847 in March 2024-25, for the Central Railway. On the Western Railway, the numbers rose from 90,040 to around 1.63 lakh during ...