Mumbai: Harbour trains leave us behind, say commuters

My local train leaves before timerdquo Herersquos a rare complaint for a city like Mumbai Commuters on the transharbour line of Central Railway have formally complained to the authorities about trains leaving the stations before time causing a rush that leads to injuries The key factor for the rush here is that train frequency on the transharbour line is as large as 45 minutes and if one train is missed an hour is easily wastedlsquoFed up of over punctualityrsquoldquoOn Thursday morning I made our seventh complaint about Bamandongri railway station Every time here the train leaves before time Before me two commuters in a rush to catch it fell on the platform Are the railways waiting for someonersquos death on the platformrdquo questioned commuter Ramjee ShiwakotiBefore the pandemic about 12000 commuters took the train from Bamandongri stationNarrating details of the incident Shiwakoti said ldquoThe train departure time is 1005 am and it arrived at 1002 am without a horn which could have alerted commuters Many who were still walking to the platform did not realise that it was already at the station The horn was sounded for departure at 1003 am and then there was a rush on the staircase and platform to catch the train Many even requested the motorman and guard to stop it for a minute but they did not pay attention I was on the staircase so could not catch the train but a few who reached the platform tried to catch the running train as there is a huge gap in frequency at these stations In the process some succeeded in catching the train but three commuters including an old lady fell One of the three was injured seriously and had to be sent to a hospital in an auto Some of us commuters took one of the injured persons who was a minor to the railway office and lodged a formal complaintrdquoSenior divisional officials said as per the railwayrsquos rule local trains on the Mumbai suburban railway are permitted to leave up to three minutes before the scheduled departure en route stations However at originating stations the train will leave only at the scheduled departure time Bamandongri is an en route midway station hence what the railways are doing is perfectly as per rules However commuters said that given the huge gap between two trains the railways need to be considerate towards themldquoThere have been a number of verbal complaints on this issue and this time we jotted down a formal complaint The trains always depart before time We have also tweeted several times for increase in frequency of trains but they are very ignorant Also the station does not have basic facilities like water for injured passengersrdquo Shiwakoti addedlsquoIncrease the frequencyrsquoldquoThe frequency of trains on the section needs to be increased and there should be a train at least every 15 to 30 minutes The railways cannot limit their services Once the section opens completely till Uran the crowd will rise significantly as already a huge number of housing apartments and colonies are under construction hererdquo another commuter Dr Savita Desai said Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said ldquoWe have taken note of the complaints and suitable action will be taken in the interest of commutersrdquoPrepandemic about 12000 commuters took the train from Bamandongri station Bamandongri is part of the transharbour line 27km Uran railway project Central Railwayrsquos fourth corridor Of the 27km stretch about 12km till Kharkopar has been functional and will open further till Ranjanapada in January 2022 and till Uran by September 2022 The line to Uran will facilitate Mumbai CSMTUran local trains also offering connectivity to the proposed Navi Mumbai airport and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust one of the countryrsquos largest shipping ports