Mumbai: Day after derailment, suburban train services on WR resumes

A day after seven coaches of a local train derailed between Andheri and Vile Parle stations here, suburban local services on all the four up and down lines on the Western Railway route resumed today, bringing relief to thousands of harried commuters.

However, trains were still running a bit late and a caution order has been sounded for motormen, said a senior WR official.

Divisional Railway Manager of Mumbai Division of WR, Shailendra Kumar, who supervised the restoration operations, said, "We got a break down crane from Central Railway for the purpose, and have detached the derailed coach whose axle was broken, and it has been placed on the east side of the track."

Over 100 officers and 500 workers were tasked to restore the line as the earliest, he said, adding that services would run a bit delayed today as motormen would take extra caution on affected tracks since the crossovers have also got damaged, which would be repaired by tonight.

Kumar also said that division would recommend a reward for motorman G Vishwanath Nair, who averted a tragedy by applying the brakes on the nick of time when his train was coming from the opposite direction.

"It was sheer luck that no one got killed in this derailment which was over packed with commuters in the peak hours. Had the coaches tilted while getting derailed, this could have taken hundreds of lives," another senior official of WR, said.

Yesterday, seven coaches of a Churchgate-bound fast local train came off the tracks on Western Railway line leading to a blockage of three lines between Andheri and Vile Parle causing a great deal of inconvenience to thousands of commuters as services came to a grinding halt for hours.

The mishap led to disruption of traffic on the busy route linking Churchgate in South Mumbai to Virar in adjoining Palghar district. To minimise hardships caused to the harried train commuters, WR had coordinated with civic bus undertaking BEST, which ran 165 extra services till late last evening.

A passenger identified as Sudhir Swaminathan (30) suffered injures in the mishap and was admitted in Cooper Hospital. The train was coming from Borivili to Churchgate and derailed at around 11 a.m between Andheri and Vile Parle.

Operations on Up fast line, on which the derailed train was running, and Down fast line over which one derailed coach had infringed, were restored last evening.

A day before, another local train had derailed on Harbour line section of the Central Railway.