Two-hour delay on western line as overhead wire collapses

Services along the Western Railway were disrupted for at least two hours on Wednesday afternoon after an overhead wire collapsed near Vasai.

Services along the Western Railway were disrupted for at least two hours on Wednesday afternoon after an overhead wire collapsed near Vasai.

HT Image

Most commuters had a harrowing time traveling but the impact was less severe because the incident occurred during non-peak hours.

According to railway officials, the overhead wire collapsed at 12.50 pm near Vasai station. Soon after, rail traffic on the Virar-Borivli line came to a halt on all three tracks.

The overhead wire on the north side fell on a local train travelling towards Churchgate.

The railways cancelled six trains during the period and rushed technical staff to Vasai to correct the problem.

After hectic efforts, services on one track could be restored at 2.10 pm but it hardly brought respite because trains continued to trot.

Jayashree Vora (32) waited for an hour at Kandivli station for a train to go to Virar.

“It was terrible because there was no other way to get there,” said Vora, who wanted to visit her mother.

“The heat made it worse,” said Neev Ranjan, a marketing executive who was caught for one hour between Mira Road and Dahisar and reached his Marine Lines office more than an hour late.

At around 5 pm, the problem was rectified and normalcy was restored.