Angry Umroli commuters struggling to get to Mumbai stop outstation train

Furious that there were no local trains running to take them to their offices in Mumbai, a group of 200-odd commuters forcefully halted an outstation train at Umroli station on Wednesday morning.

Umroli is a station between Palghar and Boisar on Mumbai’s Western Railway network. All Dahanu-bound local trains halt at the station.

Commuters also forced a railway employee at a manned crossing to close the gate so that outstation trains could not pass through.

The incident took place around 9.30am after the loco pilot of the 19028 Up Jammu Tawi-Bandra Vivek Express stopped the train when he spotted agitating commuters on the tracks.

As the situation got out of hand, a station master at Palghar station called the Dahanu Vaitarna Prravasi Sevabhavi Sanstha (DVPSS). Mahesh Patil, member of DVPSS and resident of Umroli, said: “I got a call from a WR employee and intervened. I called the WR station master and let angry commuters talk to him directly, and then convinced them to stop agitating,” Patil said, adding that all of it took over 30 minutes.

“We did not go to work for two days as WR services have gone haywire because of rains. So we decided to stop the trains. The WR should have stopped all express trains till Virar,” said a commuter who was part of the agitation and requested anonymity.

Following this incident, the WR stopped three express trains at Umroli so that passengers could get to Mumbai. “We accepted the demands of the commuters and besides Vivek Express, halted the 19042 Up Ghazipur Bandra Express and 19020 Up Dehradun Bandra express at all stations from Umroli to Virar. This will continue until the situation gets normal,” said Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer, WR. “We have now resumed the Dahanu-Virar and Virar-Churchgate services.”