Glitch, commuters’ protests disrupt CR services

Barely a week after returning to normalcy, the Central Railway (CR) services got disrupted again in the morning and evening peak hours on Thursday. But, this time, not just the system failure but protests by commuters at Vithhalwadi and Ambernath stations, too, were responsible for the disruption.

Barely a week after returning to normalcy, the Central Railway (CR) services got disrupted again in the morning and evening peak hours on Thursday. But, this time, not just the system failure but protests by commuters at Vithhalwadi and Ambernath stations, too, were responsible for the disruption.

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According to a press release issued by the CR, the suburban services along the Kalyan-Karjat stretch were adversely affected due to a technical problem in 12127 Mumbai-Pune Intercity Express in the morning. Agitated, the commuters stopped a CST-bound Ambernath train at Vithhalwadi station from 8.48 to 10.05am. They also staged a protest at Ambernath station, stopping the S-24 Karjat-CST local from 9.51 to 10.52am.

Consequently, four locals had to be terminated at Kalyan and 3 at Dombivli. These trains were later sent as special trains towards CST, said the press release.

A General Railway Police official, however, had a different version of the story. “As per our records, the agitated commuters stopped the Ambernath down local around 9am at Vithalwadi station because the indicator was displaying wrong information and the announcer made a misleading announcement.”

In the chaos that ensued, the commuters had a harrowing time. “There was no train at Ambernath for nearly one hour. Finally, I had to cancel my appointments and return home,” said Mallika Punjabi, 39, a banker from Ambernath.

Meanwhile, a technical glitch disrupted the services in the evening. “The pantograph of an Ambernath local got entangled with the overhead equipment at platform no 1 of Kurla station at 4.49pm. The train was cancelled at Kurla and was sent to the carshed. The services were delayed by 20-25minutes,” said a CR official.

“My train was stuck between Sion and Kurla for nearly half an hour,” said Kunal Bhoir, 19, a student from Ghatkopar.