Mumbai Local
A section of commuters travelling on a Mumbai local pulled the chain and brought the train to halt at Andheri station on Friday morning, after the AC stopped functioning. Passengers in some coaches of the Virar-Churchgate local train witnessed a non-functioning AC and said that they experienced sweating and suffocation.
"Ever since the local train left Borivali station, we found that the coach was not cooling. Initially we thought that the AC would start soon. But despite crossing few stations on the way, there was no sign of it," a passenger said. He further confirmed that there was suffocation due to lack of ventilation, as the doors of the coach were shut for air-conditioning. The passengers henceforth pulled the chain and stopped the train when the situation became unbearable.
The Western Railway, which operates this AC local later tweeted on the incident and clarified that the situation was the result of a technical glitch and that the train will not operate till the restoration work of the AC is completed. "Due to the technical problem in working of AC in 3 coaches of AC local, the services of AC local has been cancelled today till further repairs. Inconvenience to commuters is highly regretted please (sic)," the WR said in its tweet.
Chief spokesperson of Western Railway said that the train operations will start as soon as the glitch is resolved, or it may remain non-operational if the problems in the three coaches of the local are not fixed. The Western Railway had cancelled the AC train service even last week owing to maintenance work.
