Local train services on Mumbai's Harbour, Trans-Harbour rail network delayed due to 'point failure' at Panvel

Local train services on Mumbai's Harbour and Trans-Harbour suburban network were affected due to track changing point failure that lasted nearly two hours early Tuesday morning, Central Railway (CR) officials said.

The point failure at Panvel railway station located in neighbouring Raigad district took place between 5.35 am to 7.25 am, due to which the suburban services terminating at and originating from Panvel got delayed by about 30 minutes.

The Harbour line of the Central Railway (CR) connects Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in Mumbai to Panvel as well as the Navi Mumbai suburbs, while the Trans-Harbour line connects Panvel to Thane.

'Panvel-bound Harbour and Trans-Harbour suburban trains are running 30 minutes late between Belapur Panvel section,' Dr Shivraj Manaspure, chief public relations officer of Central Railway said in the morning.

He claimed that Vashi and Belapur-bound trains from the CSMT were running at the right time. However, commuters complained that the trains were at least 10 to 15 minutes behind their regular schedule.

A point failure is a fault with the movable pieces of track or their operating equipment that enable trains to change tracks.

A day earlier, the CR's 38-hour long mega block for the infrastructure work to make way for two new lines of ambitious Western Dedicated Freight Corridor passing through the Panvel station yard concluded after a delay of more than four hours, bringing hardship to the commuters of Harbour and Trans-Harbour lines.

Local trains in Mumbai's Central Railway network ferry around 35 lakh commuters on a daily basis. The Harbour and Trans-Harbour lines are in addition to the CR's Main Line service that operates on the CSMT-Kasara and CSMT-Khopoli routes.