CR timetable spills chaos on Thane tracks

Commuters laid concrete slabs across tracks on platform two, four, five and six, while sleepers were laid on tracks further down to prohibit the Pune-bound Deccan Queen from operating. They also ripped off the Deccan Queen name plates and placed them on the track and resorted to minor stone throwing on a 9 0’clock Titwala-bound train. Local and outstation services were disrupted for over three hours, following the impromptu train roko.

The overcrowding and the resultant protest was provoked by the new CR timetable in the peak hour clearance of passengers from Thane in the mornings and from CST to Thane in the evenings.

The timetable has “not been a welcome change” for Thane commuters. For under this, two peak hour CST bound fast trains originating from Thane at 8.56 am and the 9.29 am have been cancelled and substituted by a 9.17 fast CST local. This train thus, had to bear the load of the two cancelled trains. Passengers travelling to CST board the train at Bhandup and Mulund and travel to Thane and back, in order to secure a seat, thus leaving those at Thane utterly helpless.

Today’s demonstration was largely peaceful, though thousands converged on the platforms adding to the swelling crowd. This further resulted in the delay in clearing the obstacles. Almost 25 railway policemen, two batches of city police, along with ACP Subash Rathod and a number of Government Railway Police (GRP) were immediately summoned on the spot. The Thane station manager, DD Budhiraja, told Express Newsline, that he had given a written assurance to the commuters that he had “spoken to the central Railway DRM Rakesh Chopra regarding the change in the new time tables and suggested that the 9.19 fast should not halt at Bhandup and Mulund.” He assured that there would be a change in that respect “within four days.”

Budhiraja said that he has also suggested that a few additional trains should be operated between Thane-CST during peak hours to offset the rush.When queried on the deployment of heavy police, railway police sources said that the authorities did not want to take any chances after past experiences. Commuters said that police threatened them with arrest and lathi charge. Police were deployed at Mulund and Bhandup stations too. The services limped back to normalcy around 12.30 pm, when a CST bound train left sans a guard. Guards and motormen fled all stranded trains soon after the agitations began.