Every morning, the passengers travelling on the Central Railway (CR) have been complaining about trains running late and services getting cancelled. However, according to CR authorities, they are running trains which are 150% over its actual capacity to handle. Plus, the CR officials on Tuesday, replied to a delegation led by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) that the situation under current infrastructure wouldn't improve in the next 20-30 years.
Since this month, the passengers on CR especially travelling all the way from Karjat/Kasara-Kalyan-Thane till Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) have been complaining about the pathetic punctuality of trains. There was also a meeting between passenger delegations and CR administration where the associations demanded answers for the delay.
On Tuesday, Amit Thackeray — son of MNS leader Raj Thackeray — too met the CR authorities. He was first given a list of issues faced by over 10 lakh passengers coming all the way from the extended suburbs on the central line. The passenger associations from Thane, Dombivali, Kalyan, Titwala, Diva etc have been raising their voices quite often against the delayed train services. They gave their suggestions to Thackeray who then raised these points in his meeting held at CR headquarters in CSMT.
Sources said that in a reply to Thackeray, one of the officials stated that the prevailing condition of Mumbai's infrastructure is 20-30 years behind and the situation would not improve immediately. "We are running 150% beyond the actual capacity. Until the works on tracks between Thane-Diva are not complete, there shall be problems in punctuality. Moreover, the level crossing gates are also a big problem which ideally holds train services for over two hours each day," said a senior CR official on condition of anonymity.
This is how strained the suburban corridor on main and Harbour lines of Central Railway are who struggle to run 1774 services daily. There have been cases of signal failures, rail fractures, OHE cable breakdowns, signal failures and other technical failures.
Some Respite
Central Railway officials claim that there has been drop of 36% in signal failures, 37% fall in unit failures (issue with trains), 28% drop in OHE cables snapping
