Scores of commuters today demonstrated on the carshed railway line near the Kalwa station in Thane city on Friday, August 19, morning blocking the path of an empty AC local train for 20 minutes to demand resumption of a non-AC service in the morning peak hours.
Police detained some commuters and cleared the track. The commuters also claimed that police lathi-charged against them.
"An empty rake of AC local going out from the car shed was detained by people for about 20 minutes - from 8.10 am to 8.30 am. The protesters were taken into custody by city police. Mainline unaffected. Due to this only one train started late ex-Thane by about 20 mins," Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer of the CR, said.
The CR had added 10 air-conditioned locals replacing the existing non-AC locals on the main line. The commuters were unhappy though and demanded that non-AC locals be restored on the route from Kalwa to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.
Long-standing woes of the commuters
In the peak hours, many commuters board the non-AC local trains at the Kalwa carshed since they struggle to board the overcrowded trains. The police had been taking action against such passengers since boarding trains from carshed is not permissible.
According to Siddhesh Desai, member of Kalwa commuters' association, they have time and again approached authorities to start local services from Kalwa to ease the commuters' struggle but in vain.
He in his social media post wrote about the ordeal, shared videos from today's protest and also slammed officials for lathicharging at the commuters.
