Mumbai: Railway services continue to be impacted by Tuesday’s deluge, with only 1,300 out of 1,660 local trains running on central railway (CR) on Wednesday after 35 rakes (a twelve-coach train) were marooned owing to water entering the trains’ engines but 13 rakes were retrived by the railways.
Meanwhile, more than 72 hours after the Duranto Express derailed at Asangaon on Tuesday, the Titwala-Kasara section continues to be cut off from commuters.
The CR – which on a normal day operates a total 122 rakes on the mainline, harbour, trans-harbour, and CST-Andheri sections – on Wednesday operated only 97 rakes after water gushed into the vital parts of a majority of rakes, reducing its services to less than half the usual. Nearly 1,060 services stood cancelled on CR while the western railway (WR) saw around 30 services cancelled after seven of its rakes were stopped from running.
CR divisional railway manager Ravindra Goyal said, "The water gushed into what is known as the axle box of the train which houses bearings that are lubricated and basically runs the wheels. We will be able to bring back our services to normal by Thursday.”
Post derailment of the Duranto Express, the section experienced another mudslide due to heavy downpour in the ghats. Thus the railway was unable to run trains to Kasara and ran trains between Kalyan and Titwala stations.
