Mumbai: Central Railway traffic hit as tree damages overhead wires on Kasara line

The train traffic between Titwala and Kasara stations on the Central line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway System was severely affected all through Wednesday evening after a tree branch fell on the overhead wires between Vasind and Asangaon. The incident took place around 3 pm and the damage to the wires as well as the metallic holding structures was so severe that the line was not fully operational even as late as 9 pm, said Central Railway officials. 

The Up line—that is the line going towards Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)—was cleared for traffic around 5:15 pm but the Down line—leaving CST—would be cleared only by around 10:30 pm, said CR officials. "There is damage to the structure so it might take some more time," said Narendra Patil, chief spokesperson, CR. He said that several services have been cancelled. 

The incident saw tremendous crowds at stations as the entire evening rush hour was disrupted. The Kalyan-Kasara route, currently having just two lines, has been one of the most congested rail stretches in the country with a huge number of suburban trains competing with a host of long-distance trains moving towards Nashik and then onto the north and eastern parts of the country. This is in addition to the 20-odd freight trains that take up space on the twin lines.

As per CR records, a total of 147 suburban trains run on these routes. Of these 34 are to Kasara, 39 to Aasangaon and 74 to Titwala. In addition to these suburban lines, there are 71 long-distance trains that use 49 paths or departure slots, every day on these lines to go to places like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kolkata and the north-east.