Title - CR suburban trains delayed during morning peak hours

MUMBAI: The trains on Central Railway were running more than an hour late during peak hour rush this morning. It was the second day that commuters faced inconvenience due to the inordinate delays. Earlier on Sunday, thousands of commuters were badly hit as a 16-hour rail block was carried out on CR for the Thane yard remodelling work.

A CR spokesperson said, "The work continued till early Monday morning and this led to the delays. Also, there was dense fog on tracks between Dombivli and Thane stations and this too affected the frequency of trains. The services were hit during the early morning hours and is likely to be restored to normalcy by afternoon." Rekha Nair, who boarded a train at Kalyan at 7.30 am reached her office in Bandra Kurla complex at 10.30 am. "The trains were running very slow and many people preferred to jump out and walk on tracks to the next station," she said. Vinay Shashtri, a resident of Ghatkopar, said his train was more than an hour late and he reported late at work.

"It affected my work schedule and the wait in the train was also frustrating," he stated. The autos and taxis also refused to ply as rail commuters spilled on the streets. Some of autos charged excess fares for long distance routes. People were seen walking on tracks at stations between Thane and Kurla. "One of the tracks was closed and this resulted in train diversions and affected the frequency," said a commuter. There were, however, regular announcements on the public address system at platforms. Trains on Western Railway were plying and they were just ten minutes late, a passenger said.