Suburban train services operating on the slow tracks of the Central Railway were disrupted for nearly three hours on Friday, after a pantograph of a Thane-bound local snapped soon after the train reached its destination. Following the snapping of pantograph, the Central Railway authorities suspended train operations on the slow tracks of the suburban train network from 9.53 am to 12.20 pm on Friday. The slow services resumed from 12.30 pm.
During the disruption in services, some of the slow services were diverted between Vikhroli and Diva on fast line, whole suburban services on fast line were running normally. The railway authorities in all cancelled 20 suburban train services in both the directions. Though the snapping of the pantographs are a common occurrence in the metropolis, suburban commuters were put to considerable inconvenience as Friday’s incident took place during peak hours. Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu directed the Railway Board to send a team of officers to examine the problem of frequent electrical overhead equipment (OHE) breakdown and prepare a time bound action plan to avoid recurrences of such incidents over Mumbai suburban train network.