Title - Snag hits CR for 5th time this month

Mumbai: The week began on a bad note for Central Railway commuters as 25 services were cancelled due to a technical failure near Kalyan on Monday afternoon.
    CR officials said the pantograph of BL-16 Badlapur-CST local got entangled with the overhead equipment (OHE) wires while the train was crossing from the Up fast line to the Up slow line between Kalyan and Thakurli around 12.30pm. The problem was rectified within an hour by 1.30pm.
    Said a CR spokesperson, “Due to this incident, Up fast, Down fast and Up slow services were affected during this period. Suburban trains between Kalyan and CST ran 25-30 minutes late because of the incident.”
    This is the fifth instance of disruption in CR services this month, excluding the accident involving Vidarbha Express on July 19 that resulted in the death of one person. Frequent disruptions and lack of announcements at CR stations have left commuters fuming. Hitesh Jani, who was at Ghatkopar station around 2.30pm, said, “Trains arrived at an interval of 20 minutes. On two occasions I couldn’t even get into the trains because of overcrowding. Finally, I took a taxi to Dadar.”
    Rajesh Sawant, who was at Kurla, said, “The indicators were of no help. Announcements could be heard only after a train had arrived on a platform.”
    Kalyan resident Dinesh Singh, who was on his way to his office in Lower Parel, said, “I was travelling on a local behind the affected train. For around 30 minutes, we had no idea why our train had stopped. It was only when some commuters got off and went towards Kalyan railway station did we learn that there was a technical snag.”
PAST DISRUPTIONS
July 19 | Services on CR’s Main line are disrupted for 25 minutes after an engine develops a snag near Diva
July 12 | A technical fault in signalling system linked to a level-crossing gate at Diva hits CR services
July 11 | Services disrupted twice due to two incidents of engine failure
July 9 | A point failure between Thane and Mulund disrupts CR services
July 4 Nearly 40 services are cancelled and trains delayed on CR’s network due to formation of a crater between Thane and Mulund