Misaligned track delays Central Railway services on Wednesday

A slow train heading towards Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) suddenly came to a halt at Currey Road station on Wednesday afternoon when a railway track was spotted out of alignment.

At around 2 pm, the train's motorman sounded an alarm after which the station master, RPF staff and other official came on to the platform. "The railway track had slightly twisted, leading it to come out of alignment, and so the train had to be halted. We gave clearance after inspecting the tracks but with speed restrictions of 10 kmph," said an official from Central Railway (CR). After about 25 minutes, the train was allowed to move again and train services were delayed by 10 to 15 minutes until the evening peak hours.

While rising temperatures around this time of the year lead to inevitable contraction and expansion of the tracks, Wednesday afternoon's incident also reflects the poor maintenance of the tracks on CR despite regular mega blocks on weekends.

"There is a lot of excavation of soil and ballasts under the tracks at Currey Road. Due to this, there is a possibility of the tracks being unstable. It's surprising that despite regular blocks being carried out, such problems occur," said a senior CR official.

However, CR authorities claim that the number of rail fractures have gone down. According to CR officials, this financial year they completed renewing and cleaning 104 kms of rail tracks, unlike last year when only 62 kms were addressed.