Western Railways services gets disrupted

Mumbai: Commuters including school children are allegedly adding to the woes of Western Railways (WR) by interrupting the services of escalators in a few suburban stations, especially Kandivali, said sources.  The railway authorities also received complaints about certain commuters using stones to disrupt the operation of the escalators and school children repeatedly pressing the emergency buttons without any reason in Kandivali.

According to officials, the commuters are using escalators roughly in the western line. Recently the, railways had inaugurated the escalators at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Dockyard Road, Thane and Lonavala stations.   “We are facing this issue in two to three stations on the western line wherethe people are either disrupting the escalator services by dropping heavy luggage from a certain height. All such behaviours cause damage to the service and we have to re-start it all over again,” said Ravinder Bhakar, WR chief spokesperson.  

He further added, “Most of these cases were reported at Kandivili station A few school children were caught and they are being counselled to stop such activities. ”  

According to reports, daily 25-30 such cases are found alone in Kandivili. “We have kept staff at such spots to keep a watch on commuters,” said Bhakar. Meanwhile, a total of 372 escalators have been planned for Mumbai. Out  of them, 100 has been decided only for WR. So far 32 escalators has been installed in WR. The inauguration of the new escalators at CST, Dockyard Road, Thane and Lonavala was done by Piyush Goyal, Railway Minister on Thursday.