The derailment of six wagons of a good train near Palghar station on Tuesday caused travel issues not only to the suburban service of the Western Railway (WR), but also to the mail express trains on both down and up routes. Train number 12297 Ahmedabad-Pune Duronto Express arrived 18 hours after its scheduled arrival time at Pune. Its arrival time at Pune was 7.15 am on Wednesday, but it reached at 1.45 am on Thursday.
The passengers complained that their six-hour journey from Surat to Pune turned into a nightmare, with no one from the WR taking any responsibility. They even protested on the tracks at Vangaon Junction since the authorities allowed other trains like Vande Bharat and Rajdhani Express.
The train was originally scheduled to depart Surat at 1.45 am on Wednesday, but was rescheduled and left at around 3.45 am. Those who reached Surat to catch the train, had to wait until 9 am before the train commenced its further journey.
Due to derailment at point no 117/118 at Palghar yard on Tuesday, the Up line of Mumbai-Surat section was affected with 53 trains cancelled, 28 trains partially cancelled, 12 trains diverted and 40 trains rescheduled. The work to restore the track was completed by 5.30 pm on Wednesday and the services resumed.
A Surat resident who was travelling with a relative said that the WR authorities did not send any prior communication about the train’s schedule and when the train finally started, it stopped at almost every station causing resentment among passengers.
Another passenger said their journey was nothing short of harassment. “The six-hour trip turned into a day-long ordeal and we faced a lot of inconvenience since we had no food or water,” the passenger said.
Stating that the Mumbai-Surat line was affected due to the derailment, a senior WR official said the lines started getting cleared by Wednesday evening and the process of restoring train services was still in progress.
