Despite weekend repairs, rly glitches twice a week

Commuters on Western line had to grapple with train delays in morning peak hours on Friday after suburban services on the fast line were hit following a technical failure near Santacruz station.

This is the second consecutive day they have faced disruption during peak hour. Result: 20 suburban services were cancelled and approximately 100 services were delayed.

Most commuters said that they failed to understand why technical issues crop up on weekdays, leading to train delays, despite maintenance work being carried out by the railways on weekends.

“We seriously don’t understand the working of the railways. Every weekend they conduct mega-blocks to carry out maintenance work, yet twice a week there is a problem owing to technical glitches. Railway authorities

need to monitor the working of their employees and find out why there is always a technical issue,” said Siva Krishnan.

The train delays created much chaos and those travelling to Dadar and Churchgate were especially affected. “I had an office presentation but due to the delay, I got late for a meeting. My office is at Churchgate, so I need at least 45 minutes to reach in a fast train from Borivali. But since the trains were running late by 15-20 minutes, I could not reach on time and my client cancelled an important meeting. Railways need to be more punctual, at least during office hours. This is unacceptable since we have to feel the heat because of them,” said Anjali Singh a UCO bank staffer.