MUMBAI: Angry suburban railway commuters in Mumbai blocked trains and disrupted services on the Harbour line on Thursday morning, upset by the cancellation of some rush-hour services.
Due to a technical snag at the Kurla station, CST-bound trains on the Harbour railway line were running late by about 25 minutes. To add to this, the usual 9.11 am Chembur-CST local was cancelled. This enraged commuters who protested on the tracks. A huge crowd at the Chembur station took to the tracks and stopped locals on both up and down lines. This derailed the timetable affecting the whole of the suburban services on the Harbour line.
The railways maintained that rail services remained largely unaffected throughout the past two days when Mumbai was lashed by heavy rain. But today’s technical snag and disruption of services thereafter exposed the hollow claims of railway officials.
During the rains in past two days, 14 out of 18 express trains were canceled. While two trains were partially canceled, other two services were diverted to an alternative route. This also affected suburban services and 126 locals had to be cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The cancellations of services didn’t affect the commuters as most of them preferred to stay at home fearing an August 29 like deluge. They hoped for normal service on Thursday. The disappointment added to the anger leading to the rail blockade.