Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat train deviates to Kalyan due to snag, delayed by 1.5 hours

Mumbai-Goa (Madgaon) Vande Bharat Express runs six days a week. Pic/Satej Shinde

Passengers in the premier 22229 CSMT-Madgaon Vande Bharat train on Monday morning were surprised to arrive at Kalyan, a station not on its set route. The train deviated from its regular route and reached Kalyan instead of Panvel due to a snag and had to be reversed, further delaying it by 1.5 hours.

"There was a Signalling and Telecommunications department failure at Diva at point 103 (down local fast line to 5th line) since 6.10 am and the train was detained from 6.10 am to 6.45 am. In a spot decision to avoid further delay, the train was taken to Kalyan and reversed all the way. The priority was to gain every lost minute," a CR spokesperson said.

The semi-high-speed train usually completes its journey in 7 hours and 45 minutes. The train has eight stops in its entire journey. Mumbai-Goa (Madgaon) Vande Bharat Express runs six days a week - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. It halts at Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Khed, Ratnagiri, Kankavali, and Thivim during its journey.

"If Central Railway had run mail-express trains on the fifth-sixth track only, there would have been no confusion in Madgaon Vande Bharat today. Due to point failure, 22229 Mumbai Madgaon Vande Bharat Express, which was expected to go on the Diva Panvel route, could not go from the fast-suburban train route to the fifth track for mail-express and further to the Diva Panvel route today. There, the train was delayed for about 30 minutes.

Inevitably, the Madgaon Vande Bharat Express was taken to Kalyan and then back to Panvel on the sixth track from Dativali. Due to this, all trains are running late. As per the original plan, this would not have happened if it had gone on the fifth track only to Vidyavihar. Central Railway should still fulfil the promise made to the public and run mail-express trains between Kurla and Kalyan on the fifth-sixth tracks," commuter Akshay Mahapadi said.

CR spokesperson refuted the allegation and said if such a diversion was carried out, it might have affected CSMT-bound fast by some minutes during the diversion. "The delay would have been of approximately 15-20 min for the first detained train and would have cascaded further," he added.

Mahapadi said there is no crossover from the new corridor to the slow corridor at Diva and MEMU trains have to go to all the way to Kalyan to go to Kalva carshed. It is nothing but poor resource management and officers should be held responsible for the loss.

Aqua Line ticketing down

The ticketing app of the Aqua Line underground Mumbai Metro Line 3 crashed and was facing technical difficulties with even QR code scanning for digital payments not functional on Monday morning. There were queues and hassles of change at ticket counters across stations.

"If the administration knows there is a problem with digital payments and the ticketing app, they should sit with change and not fight with customers," Ankita Sisodiya, a commuter said. "We are facing technical issues with our ticketing system on the mobile app and website. Our team resolved it on priority and it was up and running by noon," an official said.