Title - Mumbai's lifeline goes offtrack

MUMBAI: The heavy showers on Thursday crippled the suburban train services, leaving lakhs of passengers inconvenienced through the day. There was flooding on tracks near Malad and signal failure at Kurla, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli on the Main line and at Mankhurd, Chembur and Kurla on the Harbour line.Several commuters told TOI that trains ran as late as one hour on the Central Railway while it was delayed by 20 to 30 minutes on Harbour and Western lines. Passengers also waited for 20 to 40 minutes on crowded platforms to catch trains and this too was a challenging task, as trains arrived with passengers packed like sardines. Commuters were seen fuming, with several college students who were headed for admissions, being stranded on platforms. "Indicators on Central Railway showed timings of trains which should have left (as per time table) more than an hour ago. This is frustrating. Also, we don't have an alternate mode of transport to reach CST. There are refusals from taxis and autos, and roads too have traffic snarls," said Mahesh Gada, a regular commuter from Mulund. On the WR, Kavita Nadkarni, who was boarded a 8.22am Churchgate train from Borivli said, "My train left at 8.40am and reached Churchgate at 10.05 am. This is just the first heavy showers of the season, and we are already facing delays."Another passenger, Mukund Ghanekar, from Bhandup said, "It was just a few hours of heavy showers since last night, and we are already facing so much inconvenience. The railway officials make false claims of pre-monsoon work done on tracks and for signals." Some commuters said there was flooding on tracks near Kurla, though the railway spokesperson denied this.CR spokesperson V Chandrasekar told TOI, "Due to incessant rains, there were intermittent signal failures at Kurla, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Mankhurd, Chembur and Kurla. The drains parallel to railway tracks in Ghatkopar-Kurla section overflowed which was a contributory factor in signal failures. Precautions were taken to clamp and set all tracks in straight direction to ensure safe running of trains."

He said trains were running 25 to 30 minutes late on Main line and 15 to 20 minutes late on Harbour line. "By 3.45pm, signals began to function properly. There is still some delay on account of bunching of trains," he said. Commuters also complained of delays and cancellations of some trains during evening peak hour rush. The PRO said this was due to bunching of trains caused by signal failures in the morning. In all, 148 suburban trains were cancelled on Thursday.

Western Railway spokesperson Sharat Chandrayan said the delay on WR was just eight to ten minutes. "It was mainly between 9am and 10.30am and was due to water-logging near Malad," he said.

Commuters had problems as some trains were cancelled at Dadar while other trains took more than double the time to reach CST. Many commuters took taxis at Dadar but ended up spending two times the normal fare.