Mumbai: Western Railway stalls for an hour over signal glitch

For over 63 minutes during peak morning hours, trains all six lines of Western Railway remained stalled at Goregaon. The Borivali-Andheri route remained disconnected from 7.02 am until 8.05 am on Wednesday morning, but even when services finally resumed, passengers were stranded either in trains or at platforms waiting for trains to arrive. Broadly, trains to Churchgate and CSMT were most affected.

According to senior officials from Western Railway, the problem began at 7.02 am when the signalling panels near Goregaon station suffered a technical glitch and blanked. It led to signals going haywire and shutting off in-and-around Goregaon station, including those nearby that were connected by the signalling panel.

To add to the woes, officials were not unable to control the 'points' — the mechanism that allows trains to crisscross and change lines — thus stranding them at the same location.

"Due to a technical glitch in signalling system at Goregaon station, train movements were affected on all suburban lines. We cancelled 50 services and over 150 services were delayed due to this," said Ravinder Bhakar, Chief PRO, Western Railway.