Mumbai Rains: Pre-monsoon showers bring local trains to a screeching halt

It was sheer irony that Central Railway, who love to tweet under the sun, failed miserably to provide any information to its commuters who were stuck on trains and platforms for hours as Mumbai had it first brush with pre-monsoon showers.
 
Commuters were shocked that the first showers were enough to throw the services off gear as services on harbour as well as main line got paralysed as people boarded the trains to return home during the peak hours. Several commuters complained of being stuck in the train post-midnight and many trains were delayed by 30-40 minutes.
 
Central Railway suffered its first hit around 7.30 pm when there was snag causing disruption in the power supply that delayed trains for 30 minutes. CR officials affirmed that there was over-head equipment-related issues between Mankhurd-Sanpada stations,whereas on the main line between Matunga -Kurla stations as well as Vidyavihar-Kanjurmang stations.  

What hit lakhs of commuters was the cascading effect caused due to the pile up of trains during this duration for over 30 minutes leaving commuters hassled. Despite CR claims of restoring the services on harbour line around 8:10pm, while main line from 8:20 pm, commuters complained that the trains were running late till mid might.

“I was stuck near Ghatkopar inside the train at around 8pm, there was thundering and raining and trains were simply stuck for over 20 minutes. We were scared as there was loud noises as if something stuck the wires. We were not even being given any information,” said Dinesh Rane who said that his usual 20-minute commute took almost over an hour. He said that despite several commuters taking to twitter there was no response or feedback.

Naresh Mehta another commuter who was stuck complained that seeing the chaos he decided to delay his travel. “I thought by 10.30 pm the services would be restored but I was in for a shock as the trains were arriving at CST station almost with a delay of 15 minutes and infact around 11.30 there was some another problem on the main line leaving trains standing still for over 20 minutes,” he said adding that he tried calling the GRP helpline but they were unable to provide any help.

Mehta questioned whom should the commuters call in such emergency situation as despite having public address system no announcement was being made about the delays by the guard or the motorman inside the trains.   

“This is a complete failure by the Railways as every year during the first spell of rains there are problems and railway official don’t even bother to inform the commuters,” said a rail activist