Rail and road transport were slow but functioned reliably through Wednesday's downpour in Mumbai
A car drives through a waterlogged street on Wednesday
As Tuesday's downpour spilled over to Wednesday as well, Mumbai's public transport system was forced to slow down, but did not come to standstill like the last time. In fact, the Mumbai Metro recorded its highest ever weekday ridership on Wednesday.
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Train stations bore a deserted look on Wednesday, as many people chose to stay home
Railways
While services on all the three lines faced were delayed, they remained functional apart from a few disruptions in the morning.
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Services on the Nalasopara-Virar section of Western Railway were disrupted for a brief period early in the morning around 6 am, due to flooding above rail level, but trains were operational again soon. Between 4 am and 6 pm, about 126 suburban services were cancelled and 115 delayed on WR.
Over 90% BEST buses were operational on Wednesday. Pic/Sayed Sameer Abedi
While the Harbour line was disrupted early in the morning, it kept running throughout the day. On the trans-harbour section of Central Railway, there was a minor snag at Airoli. Fewer trains were in operation as the government had declared a holiday for schools and colleges.
Private cabs were back on the road yesterday as the rainfall slowed down. Pic/Nimesh Dave
Intercity express trains originating from Central and Western Railway were also affected by the heavy rains, and the railways put up hourly updates on suburban and outstation trains on their respective Twitter handles. "Today only 80 per cent of the rakes were put into service due to the state government declaring a holiday for schools and colleges. Hence, there was no overcrowding at all. We have kept loco and EMU inspectors at strategic locations throughout, to monitor the ground situation at every vulnerable area," said a CR spokesperson.
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Road transport
On Wednesday, about 3,193 buses were in service out of the scheduled 3,401 buses, said BEST officials. One bus was trapped in about 6 feet of water in Malad subway and had to be towed out. Fortunately, there were no passengers in it.
Both Ola and Uber had switched off their dynamic pricing on Tuesday night, and the former also ran free shuttle services from the airport to the nearest Metro station. Uber requested customers to pool in and share rides, and said that they were working on getting more cars on the road.
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