Trains delayed by over 45 minutes

Services on Central Railway came to a grinding halt once again late on Wednesday night after a coach of Kalyan-CST local derailed and two signals failed. The services were delayed for over 45 minutes.

In the first incident, coach no 10 of a 12-car Kalyan-CST local derailed while entering platform no 6 at CST. “The coach derailed when the train was crossing over to the track on platform no 6. This also damaged the track that leads trains to platform no 5. Other services were delayed since platform no 7 was occupied by the rescue van,” said Shriniwas Mudgerikar, chief spokesperson, CR. He added, “Platform no 5 was repaired by 5 am and platform no 6 by 6 am.”

However, the (civil) repair work on platform no 6 slowed down the pace of trains entering CST.

Two signal failures at Kalyan between 7.28 am and 7.30 am and from 8.15 am to 8.30 am led to further delay in services. They also led to bunching of trains especially on the Dadar-CST section. Commuters, on average, took around 45 minutes to an hour to reach CST from Dadar.

“The commuters were not even informed about the delay in the services,” said Deepak Sharma, a commuter.

Tragedies and mishaps have been haunting CR since October. A bridge collapse at Kopri in Thane had compelled the railways to stop its operation for a few hours on October 23. Two people, including a motorman, died in the mishap. Three days later, the train services were severely affected after motormen went on a strike demanding filling of vacant posts.