Mumbai: Thursday morning turned into a slog for Mumbai’s suburban commuters after a technical fault at Thane station threw Central Railway services off schedule right in the thick of peak hours. Office-goers and students bore the brunt of it, stuck waiting as trains backed up one after another.
What went wrong
The trouble started with the T-36 suburban local, which pulled into Platform No. 4 at Thane at 8:42 am. A technical fault forced railway staff to cancel the service on the spot, and the empty rake was later sent off to Kurla Car Shed for repairs.
The bigger problem was what happened while it sat there. The train stayed parked at Platform No. 4 for 21 minutes — from 8:42 am until 9:03 am — long enough to back up everything behind it on the Up Slow line. One stalled train turned into a chain reaction, and soon commuters across the line were feeling it.
By the time services got moving again, delays on the Up Slow line had stretched to 40–45 minutes. Thousands of commuters got caught in the fallout, and platforms at Thane, Mulund, Bhandup, Kanjurmarg, Vikhroli, and Ghatkopar filled up fast with people waiting for trains that weren’t coming on time.
A passenger falls ill at Parel
Separately on Thursday, a passenger on a Down Slow local (K25) fell ill while the train was stopped at Parel station. Railway staff didn’t waste time — personnel from the Government Railway Police, the Deputy Station Manager, and other railway staff got to him quickly and moved him to the Deputy Station Manager’s office, where he was given first aid and some juice.
Staff suggested he go to Sion Hospital to get checked out properly, but he decided against it. He signed a written statement declining hospitalization and left the station on his own terms. His family arrived around 9:45 am. Railway officials said he was stable by the time he left, having responded well to the first aid.