Signal failure leaves Central Railway locals hours late in Mumbai, commuters recount ordeal

Central Railway local trains in Mumbai ran hours late because of a signal failure. One commuter said he boarded the 12.40 pm Kalyan-CSMT local, as he does every day. The train reached Thane station without trouble but stopped suddenly near Mulund. There was no announcement on why it had halted.

The train stood there for a long time. It then moved for 30 seconds and stopped for 20 minutes or more. This went on until Vikhroli. Finally, an announcement asked passengers not to get off the train midway, as it could be dangerous. Still, nobody said what had happened. Passengers were growing restless.

By then the delay had reached two hours. The train arrived at Kurla station at about 3.15 pm, fully three hours late. A woman ticket checker (TC) entered the first-class compartment where the commuter was sitting and asked everyone to show a ticket or pass. Passengers were angry, but nobody dared say anything.

He refused to show his valid pass and asked why tickets were being checked that day when the entire CR system was down and passengers were so distressed. The TC replied, "I am only doing my job. I have to do my duty, don't I?" He had been on the train for about three hours and was irritated by the delay, so he was unwilling to waste more time by showing his pass.

He told the TC that if she wanted to check his pass, she could get off with him at Sion station, and he got off. As he had expected, the TC did not follow. He said the fault lay entirely with CR, yet officials showed no sympathy at all. Sending a TC onto a train that was hours late was plainly wrong, he said.

Rohan Koli, a sports journalist with Mid-Day, said: "There was chaos at the station on my way to office, as no train came for a long time at Dombivli. Fortunately, a special slow train arrived at around 2.50 pm. But it was moving very slowly. It stood for about 25 minutes just before Bhandup, which added nearly an hour to my journey to Sion station. Passengers who had been standing for hours in the packed train had a very hard time. At around 4 pm I also saw people walking on the railway track towards Thane."

Shivdinesh Sharma, a regular commuter on the CSMT-Ghatkopar route, said: "Going from Kurla to Ghatkopar was very difficult today. I stood on the platform for more than 35 minutes but no train came into view. Finally I went outside and took an auto-rickshaw from Kurla. The driver asked for Rs 250, openly taking advantage of stranded rail passengers."

Rahul Yadav, who was travelling from Kanjurmarg towards Kalyan, said: "I had an important business meeting at 4 pm, but because of the signal failure I was completely stuck and could not make it."

Sashant Nair, another regular commuter on the CR line, said: "Whenever a technical fault like this or a cable fire hits the signal system, the burden falls on road transport and other modes. If installing the entire new hardware will take days, CR should keep a strict watch so that tomorrow morning's rush hour does not turn into the same chaos."