Terrible Tuesday: Rain stops trains; taxis stay off the roads

MUMBAI/THANE: Commuters endured a harrowing time a Tuesday, when just 110mm of rain and a host of technical issues caused more than 300 trains to be cancelled and

MUMBAI/THANE: Commuters endured a harrowing time a Tuesday, when just 110mm of rain and a host of technical issues caused more than 300 trains to be cancelled and more than 400 to be delayed.

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The first major downpour of the season, which began in the early hours of Tuesday, washed away claims by the state government and railways that local trains were prepared for the monsoon this year.

A taxi strike worsened the situation. Lakhs of commuters in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai were stranded as most black-and-yellow taxis stayed off the roads to support a protest by the Jai Bhagavan Rickshaw Taxi Mahasangh (JBRTM), a little-known union, against app-based taxi services such as Uber and Ola. The dearth of trains and taxis meant that app-based services could charge passengers up to five times the normal rate.

In Thane, a portion of the road near the Parsik railway tunnel caved in after a landslide and the safety wall alongside it also developed cracks.