Commuters face 2.5-hour delay on Western Railway

The Western Railway (WR) saw 60 cancellations on Monday morning when an overhead wire broke between Kandivali and Borivali on the slow line towards Churchgate.

The line was then shut for two-and-a-half-hours, delaying commuters who were on the way to the workplace.

Although the WR ran around 18 extra services from Borivali, commuters remained affected as the slow line was out of service from 6.45 am to 9.20 am. As a result of this, the services towards the Virar end were also affected and platforms 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8 at Borivali station were unable to run any services, which were instead run from platforms 4, 5, 6 and 6 A.

The WR has already been struggling with punctuality for more than two years. However, it had recently seen relief at Andheri as work related to signalling was completed at the South end last week.

Recounting about her ordeal, commuter Shrutika Maheshwari (25), a student at Churchgate’s SNDT University who travels from Bandra everyday, said that she had been clueless about the delay, but finally managed to book a cab and make it for her morning lecture. “I had no idea that the trains were running as late as they were on Monday morning, so I wasted around 20 minutes at the station. I finally booked a taxi and went to Churchgate. I was 20 minutes late for my 8 o’clock lecture, but since the lectures themselves were delayed, I were given leeway,” she said.

To add to commuter woes, autorickshaws drivers refused to ferry people towards the railway station due to heavy traffic, which created a huge jam all the way up to Andheri. In fact, even mobile aggregators (cab service applications) were charging those who wanted to catch a taxi as high as 4.9 times the normal rate.

Extra services were run between Borivali to Virar, Andheri to Churchgate, Goregaon to Churchgate, Dadar to Virar and Virar to Churchgate.