Central Railway (CR) was thrown completely out of gear on Tuesday due to the incessant rainfall that lashed the city through Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday. CR suspended services towards Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus beyond Thane on the Central Line and beyond Mankhurd on the Harbour Line through the day.
Several commuters were stranded for hours in the hope that the services would resume. Dombivli resident Bhavesh Tawde said there were no trains to Thane for over an hour on Tuesday morning. Rajbahadur Jaiswal, a resident of Sion, said he visited the station every 30 minutes, before finally being able to take the special train that CR ran from Thane at 1.42 p.m.
The impact on services was due to the severe waterlogging on the section between Kurla and Thane. CR was already reeling with the aftermath of the rain on Monday, when it had to cancel over 100 services. With the showers continuing, since late on Monday 32 local trains were held up across both slow and fast corridors between Dadar and Thane.
Senior railway officials said some of the trains may have developed snags which may affect regular CR services in near future. CR had to suspend services between Kurla and Thane around 12.30 a.m. and ran a special service at 2.10 a.m. from Thane to Karjat to evacuate passengers.
With long-distance trains cancelled, passengers wait at Thane station on Tuesday.
On the Harbour Line, the situation was not a lot different. The Tilak Nagar nullah overflowed and flooded the tracks and premises of Tilak Nagar station around 4 a.m. Railway tracks were flooded around Wadala as well. CR resumed regular services only by 4.30 p.m.
“We took a conscious decision to not operate services on Tuesday between these chronic and vulnerable sections as a precautionary measure, more so in view of the holiday declared by the State government,” chief public relations officer, CR, Sunil Udasi, said. The decision was also to avoid further bunching of suburban rakes and the forecast for very heavy rainfall coupled with a high tide of 4.5 m on Tuesday.
Senior railway officials said another reason behind the decision was the bunching of several long-distance passenger trains scheduled to arrive in Mumbai on Tuesday morning. Since several passengers were stranded and had been travelling for days, it was decided to clear the backlog of long-distance trains.
On Tuesday, CR cancelled 27 long-distance trains and short-terminated 54 trains at various stations such as Pune, Nashik and Igatpuri.
CR has cancelled 18 long-distance trains on Wednesday, and will run suburban services as per its Sunday time table.
