At least six failures a day delay local train operations on CR

At least six failures a day cause delays in Mumbai's local train operations, with alarm chain pulling being the main reason, according to the Central Railway. Between April 1 and July 13, there were a total of 646 failures reported on the main, Harbour and Trans-harbour lines. Commuters misuse the emergency alarm chain, leading to delays and affecting punctuality. Other reasons for delays include signal failures, track defects, and opening of level crossing gates. The number of unit failures in train coaches has dropped from 51 cases last year to 33 cases this year.

Mumbai: At least six failures a day leads to delays in the operations of local trains, according to the Central Railway (CR). The main, Harbour and Trans-harbour lines of the CR reported a total of 646 failures between April 1 and July 13.

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According to figures shared by the CR, cases of alarm chain pulling (ACP) top the list of failures between April 1 and July 13 with 328 cases out of the total 646 failures that have affected local train services on CR. During the same period previous year, the CR recorded 261 cases of ACPs.

The rail officials said that commuters pull the red coloured emergency chain during instances where someone from a group travelling together has not boarded, at times by mistake, or for any other reason.

“These alarm chains are provided for emergency purposes only. We have observed that commuters resort to alarm chain pulling for frivolous reasons, which is punishable under the Railway Act. This affects the punctuality of trains that leads to delays thus affecting thousands,” a CR official said.

During the same period, the authorities registered 1,490 ACP cases in the entire Central Railway, while in 2022, 9,049 such cases were reported and 8,176 people were apprehended for having misused the alarm chain. Sources said that trains also get delayed due to signal failures, track defects and opening of level crossing gates.

“We recorded 67 cases of signal and point failures, 16 cases of rail fractures and track defects. Last year, the number of such failures was slightly higher,” an official said. In these 104 days last year, the CR recorded 524 failures in Mumbai that affected local train operations.

After the recent Balasore train tragedy, the Indian Railways has taken up works of signalling systems seriously and have decided to ease funding of these projects.

Meanwhile, the number of unit failures of train coaches seeing failures has dropped from 51 cases last year to 33 cases this year between April 1 and July 13. Sources said that most of the cases are of air-conditioned local trains. And that the current non-AC fleet of trains is new, which first came starting 2008. The CR operated 37,040 mail express trains and 1,810 suburban services from April 1 to July 13.