Commuters stranded by mega block on Sunday

It was a tough day for suburban commuters on both central and western railway lines as they had to deal with disruptions and delayed trains in addition to the block on account of routine maintenance work.

It was a tough day for suburban commuters on both central and western railway lines as they had to deal with disruptions and delayed trains in addition to the block on account of routine maintenance work.

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On CR, there was a block on the slow corridor between Byculla and Vidyavihar from 11.30am to 3.30pm. During the block, all slow services between the above stations were diverted to the fast line and were halted at Parel, Dadar, Matunga, Sion and Kurla stations. No services were available at Chinchpokli, Curry Road and Vidyavihar stations. The Harbour line services between Kurla to CST were diverted to the main line from 11.30am to 3.30pm in the block period. As result, there were no services at Chunabhatti, GTB Nagar, Wadala, Sewri, Cottongreen, Reay road and Dockyard road.

The morning services on trans-harbour Thane-Vashi line were disrupted due to a rail fracture near Airoli, while the some of the evening services on WR were 30-40 minutes behind schedule at Jogeshwari station.

“The rail fracture was detected on thw slow Transharbour line going towards Airoli . This caused bunching of the trains which continued to remain delayed by 20-25 mintues in the morning,” said AK Singh, public relation officer (PRO), CR. On the other hand, WR officials denied that there were major problems in suburban services. However, commuters complained of at least 30minutes delay even after the block period. “The 3.56pm Churchgate train arrived at 4.30pm at Jogeshwari station,” said 24-year-old Sumit Pandey.