Mumbai: The Western Railway's local train services faced significant disruptions on Friday evening due to a technical problem at the Virar station's railway yard. Signalling cables and rendering points remained non-functional, severely impacting services between the Virar and Vaitarna section. The restoration work was in progress till the time of writing this report. “Around 10 mail express trains and 20 local trains were delayed by 8-10 mins till 9.40pm,” said WR spokesperson.
However, passengers on the Virar-bound fast local reported waiting time of more than 30 minutes. Jayesh Sharma, a 32-year-old accountant working with a South Mumbai-based firm, usually takes the 7.05pm Virar-bound fast local from Churchgate. On Friday, he reached Nallasopara at around 8.50pm, which is 30 minutes later than the usual arrival time. Another commuter also confirmed that his train ran more than 20 minutes behind the schedule.
Services were hit on the Central Railway, too, owing to a signal failure between Umbermali and Kasara. The failure occurred around 9.15 am and resulted in average delays of 10-15 minutes on the Kasara-CSMT route. The issue was resolved by 10.15 am, however, the disruption had a cascading effect which continued till afternoon. Adding to woes, more than a dozen long-distance trains passing through the suburban section arrived late. The problem further disrupted the schedule of local trains.
BEST bus commuters also faced numerous inconveniences on Friday evening due to traffic diversions on several bus routes.
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