Many travellers on Thane-Vashi-Belapur line say by not increasing services on it, CR is adding to their commuting woes
Airoli bus depot passengers waiting due to lack of trains on trans-harbour route.PIC/Sunil D Suryawanshi
A day after services were increased on the Central Railway, commuters on the Trans-Harbour Line, where many new-age offices and factories have come up, complained on Friday that just two train services throughout the day on the entire Thane-Vashi-Belapur section was very unfair. They also said this was putting pressure on the Thane-Belapur road.
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"This is a work district and bus services are erratic. We had hoped that the railways would increase services on this sector, but it has not happened," Rajvilas Mahanty, an office worker at Mahape said.
'Forced to take a bus'
"We are forced to take a crowded bus from Thane to reach the office, which is almost parallel to the railway line. The government should allow some more trains to ply here as it will be of immense help," he said. Another office goer, Manini Shankaran, said that it becomes more of a problem for women to travel by road transport. She said auto drivers and cabbies take benefit of the fact that trains are down and raise their fares. It is high time a few more additional services are put up on this sector also.
"The entire Thane-Vashi-Belapur sector is a work-office zone and the problems of workers here are genuine. We have followed up on the issue several times, but in vain. The train services should be increased equally whenever they are updated and running just two services per day does not suit the purpose. What is the use of two services? It is like running nothing. They can shut them too," said Siddhesh Desai vice-president of the Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh. The Central Railway on Thursday announced 68 more local train trips with immediate effect, taking the total number of services from 355 to 423. Of these 46 are on the main line and 22 on the harbour line. However, there was no increase in services on the trans-harbour line.
Official speak
CR chief spokesperson Shivaji Sutar said, "We are continuously monitoring, analysing the traffic pattern. We have added 68 services, making it to total 423 with effect from September 24. As of date, no rush/crowd has been reported on the trans-harbour line as most of the essential staff travel on the main line and harbour line. We will take further decisions in co-ordination with the state government."
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