Mumbai: Signal snag at Dadar station disrupts Central Railway's local trains services; passengers stranded

Mumbai: Local train services on one of the Central Railway routes in Mumbai were disrupted due to a snag in a signalling system on Thursday morning, officials said.

Some of the local trains, considered as the lifeline of Mumbai, were cancelled while some were running late, commuters said.

Due to the disruption, the crowd in trains and on railway stations swelled during the morning rush hours.

The snag occurred in the signalling system at Dadar railway station around 6 am.

"Trains are running late on the Main Line from 6 am onwards," Central Railway's chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said.

The technical snag was resolved at around 8.30 am, he said.

Some commuters claimed the suburban services on the Central Railway's Main Line, which connects Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in south Mumbai to Thane, Kasara and Khopoli, were running late by at least 30 minutes.

In a video that has been circulating on social media shows women struggling to board a crowded AC local. The visuals show that doors of the train partially shutting due to the crowd.

Nearly 40 lakh commuters travel daily in the local trains operated by the Central Railway.

The CR operates 1,810 suburban services on its various routes, including the Main Line (CSMT to Kasara/Khopoli), Harbour Line (CSMT to Goregoan/Panvel), Trans-Harbour Line (Vashi-Thane/Panvel) and Bamandongri-Belapur/Seawood line.

However, passengers claimed that the trains were running behind the shedule till evening. "The 6.18 pm CSMT-Dombivli AC local departed from CSMT around 15 minutes late and reached Dombivli almost 20 minutes behind shedule," said Sushma Chavan, a frequent traveler on CR's air-conditioned local train. According to Sushma, train was delayed by more than 30 minutes in the morning.

Similarly, Thane resident Shrikant Jadhav said, "I reached office almost an hour late because my train was standing still near Matunga for nearly 45 minutes."

Another frequent commuter Savitri Verma, a resident of Kalwa, said, "My train halted between Sion and Matunga station, after waiting more that 30 minutes most passengers start walking on the track."

Railway claims that announcements regarding this technical glitch was made frequently, "Hundreds of passengers who were stranded in the train were forced to walk on the track because there was no clarity about the approximate time of restoration of the problem. I was one of them," said Vijay Kant, a Dombivli resident, who works at a hospital in Dadar.

Published on: Thursday, September 22, 2022, 09:56 PM IST