Mumbai To Goa With Your Car On A Train? Well, The Service Has Officially Commenced [Video]
People who live in Maharashtra and who have plans to go to Goa during the festive season, definitely has good news. Konkan Railway has commenced the inaugural run of its much-awaited roll-on roll-off (Ro-Ro) train service for private vehicles successfully. The train arrived in Goa in the early hours of Sunday (August 24, 2025), carrying five cars and 19 passengers/ five families (including two kids below the age of five years) from Maharashtra. The vehicles transported had both cars and SUVs. Four of these were dropped off at Nandgao near Kankavli in Sindhudurg, while the fifth one was offloaded at Verna.
“It was a memorable experience for families who travelled with their own vehicles,” said Baban Ghatge, the deputy general manager of Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL). He also requested more people to take advantage of the new service.
The new initiative by Konkan Railway aims to make things easy for the maharashtra-Goa commute during the upcoming Ganesh festival (Ganeshotsav) season. It was green-flagged at the Raigad-Kolad station at 3pm on Saturday. In addition to the passengers, the former Sarpanch of Wagheri Santosh Rane, social activist Babu Ghadi, and Nandgaon Station Master Madhukar Matondkar were present at the occasion.
The train had 10 car-carrying wagons and two passenger coaches. The cars were all loaded on the former while the occupants boarded the latter. The passenger coaches had an AC coach and a second sitting compartment. These had bathrooms and all other amenities required for a comfortable journey.
Konkan Railway will base the future trips of this train on the passenger feedback and demand. The initiative seems to have had a healthy start. As for the prices, Ro-Ro journeys through the Kolad-Verna route costs Rs 7875 while those through the Kolad-Nandgaon route cost Rs 5,460.
The Mumbai-Goa highway (NH-66) has become crowded recently, making commuting stressful and time-consuming. The crowd and chaos increase manifold on holidays and weekends, making the travel time on this 600+ km highway shoot up. The Ro-Ro intends to solve this issue. It will make the journey more relaxing and safer.
The results of the inaugural (trial) run will be used to analyse the technical feasibility and safety levels of the service. This data will be used to tweak the pricing and modify the service in the future.
The Konkan Railway already operates another Ro-Ro freight service. In this however, just trucks are transported. They are driven onto the wagons using ramps, and the driver and co-driver remain inside the vehicle during the transit.
Specialised wagons are used to transport trucks. These are lower than regular ones. Trucks, as you know, have high ground clearance and better approach, departure, and breakover angles. Things can get tricky when it comes to cars and SUVs.
The wagons used on the new Ro-Ro service offer meeker loading angles and ramp designs that suit even small cars and SUVs. These also feature safety restraints to keep vehicles in place and prevent damage during transit. Deeper details of modifications or changes made to the wagons to safely accommodate low-floor cars and SUVs are yet to surface.
Now, the travel time between Mumbai and Goa is 11 hours and 41 minutes, by road. The Ro-Ro service will likely make this go further up. The reduction in stress and a boost in commuters’ convenience are expected to compensate for the same.