While WR struggled with delays and cancellations, CR suspended suburban train services for over 16 hours
As the much-delayed monsoon arrived with a bang, Mumbai's suburban train services were left paralyzed. The Central Railway (CR) suspended suburban train services for over 16 hours as rain flooded tracks at several areas between Mumbai-Thane. Western Railways (WR) were also hit but fared better than CR while struggling with service delays. However, the commuter count was almost 30-35% less against a daily average of 78 lakh after the state government declared a precautionary public holiday on Tuesday.
Central crumbles
Train traffic came to a crawl as incessant rainfall wreaks havoc since Monday. Train services of both Central and Harbour lines struggled to maintain punctuality after cancelling, rescheduling and short-terminating several trains.
The CR authorities failed to run trains on CSMT-Thane/Mankhurd section for over 16 hours. The lines were shut from 11.30-11.45pm on Monday to 4.30pm on Tuesday.
According to sources in CR, railway tracks of areas namely Thane, Vidyavihar, Kanjurmarg, Vikhroli, Bhandup, Kurla, Sion, Matunga, Byculla, Chunabhatti, Mankhurd, Govandi, Wadala, Vashi were submerged in water. The water level was 200-300mm above tracks.
32 rakes including 16 on up slow line between Kurla and Thane, 11 on down slow line between Parel and Vikhroli, five on down fast line between Dadar and Bhandup and few long-distance trains on 5th and 6th lines were held up due to incessant rains and low visibility.
"The on-field officers assessed the situation and efforts were made to evacuate the passengers in these trains. A total of 1600 staff including 400 engineering, 600 from signal and telecommunications, 400 from RPF and 200 from the electrical department were part of the evacuation team. Drinking water, tea, snacks, biscuits were provided to the passengers who were held up at stations and in trains by our staff," said Sunil Udasi, chief PRO of CR.
The passengers from the stranded trains were evacuated to the nearest stations. The CR officials said that to avoid further bunching of suburban rakes in the above section and in view of forecast by IMD for very heavy rainfall coupled with the high tide of 4.5 meters, they took a conscious decision of suspending services on Tuesday morning.
The CR short terminated 54 long distance trains and 27 trains were cancelled on account of very heavy rains in Mumbai. The CSMT-Thane/Mankhurd ip and down regular traffic was restored at 4.30pm on Tuesday.
Central line trains on Wednesday will ply as per Sunday timetable. More than 18 long-distance trains, however, stand cancelled.
Western wades through
Meanwhile, for the 37 lakh daily commuters on WR, the situation was way better. Trains continued to run with delays of 40-45 minutes despite cancellations. The Vasai-Virar belt fared way better than last year when it was shut for 3 days.
Ravinder Bhakar, Chief PRO, Western Railway said: "We had carried out various pre-monsoon works such as installation of Automatic Rain Gauge at stations, lifting of tracks, drone survey of whole area to ascertain the flow of stormwater, building 3 new underground drains through micro-tunneling, cleaning of culverts and side drains, deployment of suction machines, etc that helped us keep the water level on tracks between 100-200mm."
Meanwhile, due to severe bunching of trains, passengers of the long-distance train were made to take buses from Surat for Mumbai. Stranded passengers were provided with food and drinking water at railway stations and trains.
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