“We are so tired of it, year after year the same waterlogged tracks and annually recurring delays, with no end in sight. How much longer will our demands be neglected?”
Central Railway (CR) commuter, on the behalf of over thirty eight lakh suburban passengers for whom travel by local has been a challenge daily, wrote an open letter to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expressing ire in the backdrop of yet another failure on Mumbai’s local train servicescausing disruption during monsoons. Despite recurring assurances, commuters have been forced to put up with regular service suspensions as areas between Vidyavihar-Thane and Govandi-Mankhurd are known waterlogging spots.
The letter notes the contrast in CR and Western Railway (WR) services, adding WR has been functioning efficiently during the recent rains, while CR services faltered, leaving countless commuters stranded. This disparity, the letter suggests, reflects deeper issues in the management and resource distribution between the two networks.
Concerns such as flooding, poor drainage systems, and garbage accumulating on the tracks have been troubling CR commuters for many years. Naturally, this has resulted in recurrent delays and service outages, especially during rainstorms. CR officials stated that they have upgraded their drainage system and installed pumps to prevent water accumulation, but it is clear that these measures were not designed to handle extreme weather, as evidenced by the chaos on Wednesday night.
Regarding this grievance, CR’s Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Dr Swapnil Nila told that different geographical position of a city is a major constraint in Central Railway, as low-lying areas and storm water run-off from slums is accumulated on running tracks which leads to such disruption. He also highlighted changes to upgrade an ageing system, although this is little consolation but these efforts seem far from sufficient for the harried commuters.
Since years and years of promises have not given any tangible results, the open letter also ends with an appeal for real action, saying the time has passed where Mumbai’s Central Railway users “can’t handle failures”. The letter demands sweeping changes to make CR’s services comparable with the much more efficient WR.
