Incessant and heavy rains since Monday evening hit commuters once again as suburban services were thrown out of gear for the third consecutive day. Services on the Central Railway were largely affected due to waterlogging in low-lying areas, while Western Railway services were hit due to technical snags.
Rakesh Bhargav, a business executive, who was travelling on the WR line said, “I wanted to go to Churchgate and waited for a train at Elphinstone Road for over 25 minutes. I was finally forced to go to Parel station, from where I went to CST and then Churchgate station.”
On CR, services were affected during peak hours. In the morning, a point failure between Masjid and CST, resulted in bunching of Up fast locals and Up slow locals between 8.30 am and 9.25 am. This fault threw services out of gear for the entire day as the trains ran 20 to 25 minutes behind schedule. Around 18 services were cancelled on the main line.
In the afternoon, between 3 pm and 4.10 pm, water levels rose four inches above track-level between Chunabhatti and Kurla, resulting in suspension of suburban services on the Harbour Line. CR had to cancel over 42 services.
Further, due to a railway track being washed out between Sindi and Tuljapur stations on CR’s Nagpur-Wardha section on July 19, Ajni-Amaravati Express, Nagpur–Bhusawal, Nagpur-Wardha, Bhusawal-Nagpur passenger trains remained cancelled, while several express trains were diverted to different routes.
In a press release, CR has appealed to passengers to make proper inquiry, before embarking on local and long-distance train journeys.