Merry Christmas and a happy megablock, Central Railway commuters

A girder being transported for the work

Central Railway has decided on a major shutdown today, Christmas Day, in broad daylight. It will suspend suburban trains from 9.15 am to 1.45 pm between Dombivli and Kalyan stations to build a bridge and put up four girders six metres wide for a new footover bridge at Thakurli station with a 400 metric tonne road crane.

While the footover bridge is necessary, mid-day tried to find out why the block is being held on Christmas Day.

Explaining the logic, CR Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said that the day was chosen because the regular rush of office-going passengers is less and due to the work, they will have to shut down all six lines, which involve national rail traffic too.

There are no dedicated corridors for national and suburban traffic.

"If we had shut rail traffic for 2.5 hours on all these six lines in the night, it would have had more serious repurcussions not just on the national traffic, but also the local train traffic. All trains arriving from various parts of India enter Mumbai early morning maximum by 9.30 am. In case we hold a night block and shut down the lines, we will have to keep these trains waiting at some stations like Nashik, etc, throughout the night and then allow them into Mumbai in the morning, almost killing the punctuality of all the suburban train services as the timings will clash.

The confusion will then continue till late in the day and affect both morning and evening suburban trains," Sutar said.

"By 9.30 am, almost all outstation trains arrive in Mumbai, so there are few mail trains to regulate and reschedule. Holding the megablock then will also have minimal repercussions on suburban local traffic. Services upto Dombivli and beyond Kalyan will run as usual."

Other services

• Suburban services will be suspended from 9.15 am to 1.45 pm between Dombivli and Kalyan
• Additional special services will run between Kalyan and Karjat/ Kasara during the block period at 20-minute frequency
• Additional special services will be run between CSMT and Thane / Dombivli stations during the block period at 15-minute frequency
• Services between CSMT/Dadar to Kurla, Ghatkopar and Thane will run as per time-table

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