Mumbai: Central line commuters of Mumbai Suburban local trains are perhaps the most helpless of all as they continue to suffer the mismanagement of the Railways. Though mega blocks are announced in advance to alert and manage the passengers, the utter mismanagement time and again has left commuters frustrated.
Trains on the Central line ran late on Sunday, some by as much as over half an hour, as many of the passengers braved hot and humid temperatures standing on platforms, in the hope that they'd be able to reach their desired destinations in time.
The delay however frustrated the majority of office-goers, with some opting to choose even costlier cab services like Ola and Uber to reach their offices. While trains on down line to Kalyan and Badlapur seemed to be working on time or with little delay, trains on up line to CSMT, faced massive delays, with passenger rush increasing on the platform by every minute, even on a weekend.
Central Railway Services Disrupted
What added more to the frustration of the block was the fact that it came a day after similar chaotic scenes unfolded on the Central line as motormen decided to work without doing any overtime. The motormen's defiant decision came a day after one of their colleagues, Murlidhar Sharma, was run over by a train while crossing tracks at Byculla.
As many motormen attended the funeral, they were unavailable for train operations. Consequently, around 147 trains, including 88 local train services during the evening peak hours, were cancelled throughout the day.
Many trains were delayed by an average of 15-30 minutes, with some running late by even an hour, leading to crowding at railway stations and inside trains, causing inconvenience to the commuters.
