Smog takes toll on Western Railway’s operations

The Western Railway (WR) saw delays on Saturday morning as smog near Vaitarna, Surat and Vapi affected passenger trains entering the city as well as local trains, which were delayed as a cascading effect, from early to late morning.

Officials said that, as a result of the smog, the motorman had to run the trains at a very slow pace due to the lack of visibility.

“The passengers trains were late by 15 minutes to 40 minutes due to the smog and when these trains are late, local trains too get stuck, which resulted them in being delayed by 15 minutes as well,” said WR divisional railway manager Shailendra Kumar.

The problem had begun as early as 2 am. “The motorman had been notifying us about the smog, but it cleared up and services were restored by 9 am,” he added.

Shrutika Maheshwari, one of the commuters who were affected by the delay, said, “I was at Bhayandar station around 11 am and the train arrived 20 minutes later. There was a lot of crowding at the station but luckily there was a place to sit in the coach so I went ahead otherwise I was thinking of missing it. Since I have seen a couple of videos of people getting into jam-packed trains and falling off and dying, I avoid overcrowded trains now.”

Meanwhile, the Central Railway (CR) trains were delayed by 10 to 15 minutes as well, as smog was reported in and around Diva.