Season’s first drizzle brings CR to grinding halt

MUMBAI: The Central Railway (CR) service was badly hit on Wednesday night because of a series of failures during the first drizzle. The railways’ tall claims about

MUMBAI: The Central Railway (CR) service was badly hit on Wednesday night because of a series of failures during the first drizzle. The railways’ tall claims about their monsoon preparedness fell flat.

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Passengers heading home had to wait for hours at the platform, as trains moved at a snail’s pace after an initial standstill on the main line for almost couple of hours.

A suburban local came to a halt in the Parsik tunnel between Thane and Kalwa railway stations. The power of snapped switching off its lights, fans and announcements for around 40 minutes. “Several children and women started crying because of the darkness and suffocation. There were no communication from the railways for almost 40 minutes,” said Vithal Shintre from Badlapur, who also faced the ordeal.

The suburban services on all the three corridors — CR-main, Harbour and Trans-Harbour — were badly affected because of the multiple failures during evening peak hour.

The Harbour line services were badly hit at Mahim owing to failure of the power supply system. Almost at the same time, services between Chembur and Tilaknagar stations came to a halt owing to power failure.

Again a technical glitch was reported in a local plying between Thane-Vashi Trans-Harbour services.

Commuters said there was a spark in the pantograph of a train at Mumbra platform. The service on this route came to a standstill for almost an hour. But CR officials did not confirm the incident.

As a result of the multiple snags, several t rains were delayed, diverted and cancelled. CR spokesperson AK Singh said Harbour line services were restored around 8.45pm, while the main-line services resumed around 9.50pm.