Western Railway Resolves Cable Cut Causing 11-Hour Service Disruption

Local train services on the Western Railway network were disrupted on Monday due to technical issues after a cable being cut at the Borivali station in Mumbai, officials said. Several suburban services were cancelled and passengers complained of trains running late on the route.

The problem, which occurred at around 2 a.m., was resolved after 11 hours, as per officials.

Extra Metro services were operated to handle the rush of passengers due to delayed local train services on the Western Railway network, they said.

Borivali is one of the busiest railway stations in north Mumbai, with a large number of commuters and office-goers using local train services from there everyday.

The technical issues occurred at around 2 a.m. and suburban trains were not operated from platform numbers 1 and 2 of the Borivali station due to the cable being cut that rendered some track changing points non-operational, the Western Railway officials said in the morning.

Trains were being operated from the remaining platforms - 3 to 8- at the station, according to an official.

Nearly 40 pairs of scheduled suburban services were cancelled due to the problem, but the Western Railway operated 35 additional services for the convenience of passengers, the WR said in a statement in the afternoon.

Four track changing points which were affected due to the cable cut were restored, officials said.

All points have been restored and the train movement from platform no. 1 of Borivali station resumed at 12.05 p.m., the statement said.

Some commuters, however, complained that the suburban services on the WR route were still running late by 15 to 20 minutes.

The Western Railway daily operates more than 1,300 suburban services and around 30 lakh commuters travel on its network, spread between Churchgate in south Mumbai and Dahanu in neighbouring Palghar district.

A spokesperson of the Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited said they operated extra services on Monday morning to cater to the rush of passengers due to the delayed local trains services on the WR route.

Normally, 21 train sets are operated during peak hours, but on Monday, 24 were in service, the official said, adding that Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority's Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Sanjay Mukherjee has instructed them to run extra services to alleviate the rush.

Metro Line 2A (between Dahisar and Andheri West) and Line 7 (between Dahisar and Andheri East) witnessed significant increase in overcrowding at Borivali, Kurar and Rashtriya Udyan stations, the official said.

"Currently, four extra train sets have been added on Metro lines 2A and 7," the spokesperson, adding the additional services will continue until the situation normalises.