Two back-to-back technical snags disrupted train traffic on the Central Railway on Friday. In the morning hours, there was a rail fracture near Mulund. Several commuters were forced to walk on the track amid rains. In the evening, an overhead cable supplying power to trains failed near Vashind thus disrupting trains. The Central Railway had just recovered from Wednesday's heavy rainfall that led to waterlogging in many parts of the city and rail network.
The first incident happened on Friday morning at around 9.25am between Thane and Mulund. The CR authorities said that there was weld fracture – a joint that joins two rail tracks which suffered a crack and needed urgent attention. It was reported on the Up slow line.
This affected train services departing from Thane, Kalyan all the way to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) on the slow line. Several passengers had to get down from trains and walk on the rail tracks to reach the nearest station.
Likewise, it also disrupted train services on both slow and fast lines as trains that were stuck between Mulund and Thane had blocked the path of other trains. The railway officials said that as offices have opened with 50 percent attendance, as per current state government Covid-19 norms, number of passengers too have gone up.
In fact at many stations there was crowd on the platforms and FOBs owing to this disruption as there was a cascading affect. "The failure was put right at 9.50am," said Shivaji Sutar, Chief PRO, Central Railway.
As day progressed, situation was getting normal and trains were running with minor delays. However at 3.30pm another technical failure occurred on CR. This time between Vashind and K-hadavli stations.
Sources said that pantographs of EMU local train got entangled with overhead wires. This local train had started from Kasara and was going all the way to CSMT. Tower wagons had to be moved for restoration of this entangled pantograph. By then it had already detained two long distance trains and local trains. And as evening progressed, train services were also affected. The snag in pantograph was rectified at 7.18pm.
