Day after terror on track, it’s extra-fast Churchgate local

On Wednesday, a journalist from the BBC’s London office called up Western Railway’s Chief Public Relation Officer Pranay Prabhakar

On Wednesday, a journalist from the BBC’s London office called up Western Railway’s Chief Public Relation Officer Pranay Prabhakar and asked: ‘‘How did you restore your railway in four hours (after seven blasts on trains). Last year, when there were two blasts in London, it took us three days to resume train services.’’

Prabhakar replied: ‘‘We worked hard. Everyone, junior, senior…was on the job.’’

‘‘No trains from Virar to Churchgate till further notice,’’ echoed the announcement at an empty Mira Road station today. About 100 metres away from the station towards Virar, commuters were trickling in as early as 4.30 am.

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It was at 5.50 am, the Goregaon local pulled up into the platform. It left like it does everyday, unfussingly, though with few commuters. And it could do so because throughout Tuesday night, the station was a hub of activity clearing the rubble that had piled up after Tuesday’s blast. The GRPF joined the police and railway engineers deployed tower wagons to fix the overhead powerlines that had snapped under the impact of the explosion.

The bomb disposal squad arrived at 8 30 pm on Tuesday to collect samples of debris from the first class compartment. ‘‘The police did not let us clear the rubble till 2 in the morning,’’ Aditya Kumar, senior divisional personal officer, Western Railway, said on Tuesday night. ‘‘We will clear it in two or three hours and fixing the powerlines will take more time,’’ he added.

As promised, the rubble was cleared by 4 30 am, Wednesday, but work on the the powerlines was still continuing. As dawn broke, passengers, mostly office-goers and students, started arriving with one single question: will the trains run?

There were those who waited for a while, and went back home. ‘‘It seems trains won’t be running today, so I am heading back home,’’ said a BMC employee. Others wanted to go to work.

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By now, those waiting for trains had broken up into groups, discussing, speculating and hoping that the next train came soon. Soon there was a sign that it would, the announcement said an extra-fast local to Churchgate was on its way. This brought loud cheers from those headed there. The others stayed quite as the super-fast trains would not halt at their destinations in between.

And as the local pulled out of the station around 9 am, people in the nearby apartments stared out but no one was surprised. This is Mumbai. No matter what, the trains will always run.