Thousands of commuters traveling on the main line of Central Railway (CR) were stranded at various stations on Friday night due to the derailment of three coaches of Chalukya Dadar-Puducherry Express near Matunga station, disrupting local as well as long distance train services till Saturday afternoon.
The CR took over 15 hours to restore services, as the track was completely damaged after CSMT-Gadag Express and Chalukya Dadar-Puducherry Express collided, leading to the derailment.
Thousands spent the night on the platforms, as 33 long distance trains were affected. While 13 trains were cancelled, others were rescheduled or short terminated on Friday and Saturday.
Apart from long distance trains, suburban services were also badly hit with almost 100 local trains cancelled. The fast train services from Thane and Kalyan had to be shut till 1 pm on Saturday and were diverted on the slow line.
Commuters complained that slow train services also ran late on Saturday and platforms between CSMT and Kalyan Kasara, Karjat and Khopoli stations were heavily crowded.
While restoration work was going on at the mishap site in Matunga, the CR had advised commuters traveling to CSMT from Thane to opt for road transportation on Saturday.
The two trains collided around 9.45 pm on Friday on the crossover, where trains interchange tracks.
As per information, both trains were running on the same track but Gadag express jumped the red signal and rammed into Puducherry express from behind — a major lapse on the part of the Railways.
Blaming the loco pilot and assistant loco pilot of Gadag express, the chief crew controller has said that they failed to observe the red light signal at Dadar station, leading to the collision with Puducheri express. The chief crew controller blamed the loco pilot and the assistant loco pilot for “poor signal knowledge, poor presence of mind and improper calling” resulting in the collision.
