Over 130 trains were delayed and 20 trains cancelled due to a rail fracture on the Central Railway (CR) inside the Parsik Tunnel from 7.25 am to 8.30 am on Thursday morning, causing delays in the peak hours as well.
The incident comes a day after the Auxiliary Warning System (AWS) malfunctioned and applied the emergency brakes of a train while entering CST, causing the train to come at a standstill mid-platform.
Commuters who were trying to get to their offices were hit with the delay of 20 to 25 minutes on the fast line as the trains were running behind schedule.
Vijay Yadav, a marketing executive who travels from Kalyan to CST, said not only was his train late but also it was going slow.
“I reach CST by 10.15 am but today not only was the train late but it was running at a snail’s pace,” he said. “To add to it due to the delay, the trains were more crowded than usual and there was no space to breathe. There were no announcements being made at the station and we were completely unaware of what was happening here,” said Mr Yadav.
An official requesting anonymity said that the trains were not cancelled unless they were running extremely late, due to which the delays were more than usual.
“We don’t cancel trains unless extreme delays are seen, due to which the trains were running late by 10 to 15 minutes on an average,” said the official.It was only 10 days ago that CR had seen the Harbour line towards CST come to a complete standstill for 52 minutes, causing cancellations running into the 60s on that day.
The CR public relations officer A.K. Singh denied there were a high number of cancellations and said, “Three trains were diverted between Diva and Thane and only eight services were cancelled while a few were delayed by 15 to 20 minutes.”
