Mumbai: Track maintenance work delays Harbour line trains for second day

For the second consecutive day, track maintenance work on the Harbour line affected suburban rail services on Thursday morning. Trains got delayed, as the special maintenance work between Belapur and Seawoods stations missed its deadline and continued for 90 minutes more. It started on Wednesday night and instead of ending at 3.30 am, it got over around 5.10 am.

Speed restrictions slowed down services on the Harbour line. File pic

According to sources, apart from the track work affecting services, the railways also imposed speed restrictions on the line. This not only slowed down trains, but also delayed a number of them during the morning rush hour.

For the same reasons, services were affected on Wednesday morning too. Sharing details about the work that has been carried out, a railway spokesperson said, "Tracks were lifted with the help of machines and provided packing. Machines were used for better results. As this kind of work is relatively new in the area, speed restrictions were imposed to check track alignment. The work was carried out for improving the condition of tracks."

Speaking to mid-day, Subhash Gupta, former member of Central Railway's Zonal Railway Users' Consultative Committee, said, "How can the railways miss deadlines for two consecutive days? This means that commuters' protests are not taken seriously and work is delayed even after knowing the fact that services will get affected."

Change in train schedule
Timings of 11 CR locals from Kasara and Karjat towards CSMT have been changed due to dense fog on Northeast and Southeast sections. The pre-poned timings of early morning trains will come into effect from Monday.

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