Delays, disruptions trip Harbour line

MUMBAI: Harbour line services witnessed two major disruptions on Friday, leading to cancellations and delays in service. Angry commuters staged a rail roko in front of a Borivli local around 9pm at CST as there had been delays in services in the evening. The first disruption had occurred at 4.10pm at Vashi after a local train developed a technical snag.
There was another disruption after railway protection force (RPF) personnel rushed to Masjid station to catch a rooftop traveller. The third, minor disruption happened at CST and lasted 30 minutes after incensed commuters prevented a Borivli local from leaving the terminus. An official at CST said, “There was a delay in the arrival of Harbour line trains after the Borivali local, scheduled to leave from CST at 8.45pm, arrived late. This had a cascading effect as other trains following it also ran late.”
Commuter Mahendra Lohima said, “The Borivli train had been detained at CST but there were no announcements. Commuters entered the cabin of the deputy station master to demand an explanation for the delay and lack of announcements. RPF and government railway police (GRP) officials were deployed in large numbers to keep the situation under control.
Another CST official said, “The late arrival of the Borivli train threw off the entire time-table. When the indicator changed to display that the Borivli local would leave the station at 8.45pm, angry commuters sat in front of the train and prevented it from leaving the station. They demanded that the local should instead be sent to Panvel, which was not possible as the motorman belonged to Western Railway. It took us 35 minutes to convince them, and the train finally left at 9.15pm.” Commuters had also entered the motorman’s cabin of the local to try and force the motorman to take the train to Panvel. However, after a lot of pleading and requests by the officials and security personnel, commuters relented and vacated the tracks and the motorman’s cabin.
Central Railway had a tough time maintaining its time-table due to a disruption in the evening at Vashi. A CR spokesperson said, “A defect developed in a Belapur-CST local at round 4.10pm and it was rectified by 5.10pm. This forced us to cancel six services. Two trains were terminated before Vashi due to the incident, leading to 40-minute delays in services to Panvel.”