Mumbai: On Monday, the rains took a breather, enabling the Central Railway (CR) to resume its suburban services, which had remained suspended for the past two days.
While this was a relief, much to the consternation of office goers, trains were running late by 35-40 minutes on the CR’s Main and Harbour lines.
Services such as CSMT-Kasara, Kalyan-Titwala, Titwala-CSMT, Asangaon-CSMT, CSMT-Ambarnath routes resumed early on Monday, but on the CSMT-Badlapur section, it was around 10am that the services began. “All the services are operational except from Ambarnath to Karjat,” said a CR official.
Though the CR resumed its services, commuters were left fuming as the trains were late by 40 minutes, resulting in crowds on platforms and inside the coaches.
A CR official said services beyond Badlapur were not resumed because of large-scale damage to the tracks, despite repairs having been undertaken on a war footing.
“Due to track damage on the Badlapur-Karjat route, services will resumed on Tuesday. Currently, work in these places is in its final phase and by Tuesday, the Badlapur-Karjat and Karjat-Khopoli routes will be started,” the official added.
A shuttle service was operated between Karjat and Panvel to enable commuters to travel on Harbour/trans Harbour/Main line suburban sections. Western Railway services were on schedule.
Meanhwile, thousands of passengers continued to be stranded at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Kurla) on Monday after several long-distance trains were cancelled, or rescheduled, or diverted, following two days of excessive rainfall and waterlogging in the state.
At least 73 long-distance trains were cancelled, or partially cancelled, or diverted due to excessive rains causing inconvenience to passengers stranded at LLT since Sunday afternoon,” said an official.
After rain pounded Mumbai from Friday night, at least 12 major outstation trains, including the Duronto Express, Punjab Mail, Devgiri Express and Vidarbha Express were stuck, some for hours, on waterlogged tracks at Mumbai's outskirts on Sunday. Railways made alternative arrangements for those stranded and some services were either short-terminated or restored.
