Commuters fume as Central Railway’s caution order delays train services on Harbour Line by 30 minutes

On Wednesday afternoon, two wheels of an empty rake, which was on a trial run, derailed near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT)’s platform number 2. The trial was being carried out while attending to a defective spot, where a coach of a CSMT-bound train, arriving from Panvel, derailed on Monday morning. The incident on Monday occurred approximately about 50 metres away from the CSMT platform no 2 , wherein the repair works are underway.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Dr Swapnil Nila, Central Railway’s Chief Public Relations Officer said probe revealed that the derailment occurred owing to a defect in the tongue rail, which is the point of a crossover between two platforms, from where the trains get diverted, travel in a straight line or turn.

In a bid to undertake the repairs on the defective spot, the Central Railways issued a 10kmph caution order near CSMT’s platform numbers 1 and 2 at 5.50 am on Thursday, delaying all trains by 30 to 35 minutes.

“While typically the speed for trains at that spot is 30kmph, the caution order imposed a speed of 10 kmph early on Thursday. While the delay didn’t start immediately, it was felt later during the day as train services were hit and were delayed by 30 to 35 minutes,” said Nila.

Announcing the order, the Mumbai division of Central Railway said in a post on X. “Harbour line trains are running 30 – 35 minutes late. Passengers with valid harbour line tickets are permitted to use mainline trains from CSMT up to Kurla.”

Even as the Central Railway maintained that train services were delayed by 30-35 minutes, commuters travelling on the Harbour Line said the train services were delayed by nearly an hour, with the local trains being halted between stations for prolonged durations. Many daily commuters, who usually take the Harbour Line, took the Central line on Thursday to reach their destinations.

Earlier on Monday, nearly 52 local trains on the Harbour Line were cancelled, while 26 trains had to be short-terminated till Wadala. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Wednesday trial run mishap, nearly 20 services were cancelled.

According to officials, the Central Railways is eyeing to complete the repair of the defective spot by Thursday night, following which normal train services will resume.

“Currently, we have replaced the tongue rail, which was the root cause of the problem. We are trying to carry out the machine packing at the spot at night (Thursday). The repair work is still underway. We are aiming to resolve this issue by tonight, after which the normal services will resume,” Nila told Express on Thursday evening.