Commuters fume as 2 peak-hour locals skip Borivali halt

A senior WR official said the decision to suspend the Borivali halt of two rush-hour trains was aimed at redistributing passenger movement rather than deny connectivity for Borivali residents

Mumbai: Confusion and anger gripped Borivali-bound commuters on the western line on Tuesday evening as two peak-hour Churchgate-Virar locals skipped halting at the station as part of the Western Railway’s efforts to reduce congestion and lengthy train detentions under its revised timetable.

Photo for representation (Hindustan Times)

At Churchgate, commuters complained that the announcement about the 6.22pm and 7.05pm Virar locals not halting at Borivali came too close to the implementation of the revised timetable, which came into force on Tuesday. Many commuters said they had to rethink their journey, skip some services or get off at Dahisar to reach Borivali by road, causing inordinate delays.

“The announcement came at the very last moment. So I decided to skip the 6.22pm AC local I usually board and take a non-AC train so I could alight at Borivali,” said Rajiv Singhal.

Ajay Singhania, a resident of Sai Baba Nagar, wondered why Borivali had been singled out for decongestion when trains could have skipped alternate stations between Malad and Dahisar. “That would have made more sense, as a few Virar-bound fast trains don’t halt at Borivali anyway,” Singhania said.

Under the revised timetable, the WR has withdrawn six low-demand, non-peak hour locals and added six others, keeping the overall number unchanged at 1,414 services. Weekday AC local services have increased from 145 to 147, with the 5.28pm Churchgate-Borivali and 6.24pm Borivali-Churchgate non-AC locals being converted into AC services with any change in their timings or route.

To provide direct connectivity from Dadar till Dahanu, a Dadar-Virar service has been integrated with a Virar-Dahanu Road service. The local will leave Dadar at 5.22pm and reach Dahanu Road at 7.30pm, as per the revised timetable.

The first day of operations under the revised timetable was marred by disruptions, with several suburban services delayed by 20-25 minutes. Trespassing, alarm chain pulling and delays in closing AC local doors were among the main causes of disruption.

At Bandra, a long-distance train (12908 Maharashtra Sampark Kranti Express) was detained for eight minutes after a passenger pulled an alarm chain; another train was held up for four minutes at Borivali following a similar incident. At Mumbai Central too, a train was detained for 12 minutes due to trespassing on the tracks, said a WR official.