Mumbai: WR commuters say, ‘Within seconds, train turned into can of sardines’

Commuters struggle to board a train that arrived late at Kandivli railway station on Monday. Pics/Satej Shinde

While Western Railway (WR) commuters complained of crowding at stations caused by speed restrictions and cancellations due to ongoing work at Malad station, officials said that cancellations would come down to 60 to 70 by Wednesday morning and normalcy would resume by Friday.

"Work has been going on for more than 25 days and now we have reached a crucial phase, the signalling test, for which we need to restrict the speed of trains to 30 kmph. The speed caution on the fast lines will be taken off on Wednesday morning, reducing half the cancellations and the restrictions on the slow lines will go away by Friday morning after which a major block will be taken," a WR spokesperson said.

The Railways are building a fifth and sixth line between Bandra Terminus and Borivli. This will be the mail/express train national corridor, segregated from the Mumbai suburban corridor. "At present, the fifth line is in place. It is used as a bidirectional line. The sixth line is being built. As of today, work on the sixth line has been completed on a 9-km stretch of Bandra Terminus to Goregaon. Now the second important phase, from Goregaon to Kandivli, is done. The new 4.5 km line is ready, now we need to cut and connect to the existing network," an official said.

Commuters' experiences

Rupak Dhakate, HR professional, 34

‘I live in Malad and my office is near Ram Mandir station. I normally catch the 15-coach Virar-Andheri slow local, which arrives at Malad station at 9 am. On Monday, trains were running 20 minutes late due to which the platform was overcrowded. I managed to board the 8.46 am Churchgate-bound slow train at 9.05 am with great difficulty. Within seconds, the train was packed like a can of sardines. It was difficult to move an inch. Then there was a chain-pulling incident due to which the train had stalled and people were attempting to get into the already-packed compartment.

No one who got in from Malad was able to alight at Goregaon. Besides me and several others couldn't get down at Ram Mandir station despite being on the same side as the platform. I got down at Jogeshwari after pushing through the hordes who wanted to get in. I had to catch a Borivli slow train to get to Ram Mandir. Due to speed restrictions, the train took 15 minutes to reach Jogeshwari, which normally takes around eight to nine minutes. This incident makes me wonder how commuters play with their life and brace for numerous challenges to reach their workplace on time'

Khurshed Lawyer, Actor, 49s

‘Work was taking place when I visited Malad station a week ago. People had climbed the northmost foot overbridge only to realise they could not reach the slow train platform so they had to go back. They have erroneously built a public toilet where the north-end bridge's landing staircase should be. Construction work and height-raising of the platform was on. I almost fell due to this.'