Title - Central Railway travail: 150 trains cancelled

MUMBAI: Central Railway services stood disrupted for the second consecutive day on Monday as heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai. As many as 150 services were cancelled due to technical failure as well as water-logging.

Lakhs of commuters faced a harrowing time due to cancellations and delays on Harbour as well as Main lines. Ghatkopar's Rajani Shah said, "It took me more than two hours from Vidyavihar to Ghatkopar against the usual 40 minutes."

Dombivali's Mahesh Jain added, "CR has failed miserably. An 8.35am train for CST arrived at Dombivali station at 10.30am. Thereafter, it was an agonizing journey as I reached CST around 1pm."

CR officials claimed the disruptions were not caused by water-logging but due to failure of 'points and crossings, or points where trains interchange tracks. "The other major cause of disruption was failure of the Konkan-Kanya Express' locomotive (engine). As a result, CST-bound fast-line services were diverted to the slow line between Diva and Thane stations," a senior CR official said.

The official further said that the failure of the locomotive at the onset of the peak hour as well as water-logging and subsequent failure of points at Sandhurst Road, Thane and Kalyan exacerbated the situation. The water also could not recede fast as the high tide set in around 1pm." Apart from water-logging, CR's area of concern is frequent point failure. CR has now decided to the raise the height of the point machines.

A special maintenance block was announced on Monday night to resolve the recurring point failure at Thane.

Western Railway trains 20min late

Western Railway fared comparatively better than Central Railway on Monday, though their services did run 15 to 20 minutes behind schedule during the morning rush hour. WR spokerperson told TOI, "There was no water-logging or cancellation in the services despite heavy rains."