Suburban train services were badly affected on the busy route due to the derailment.
Hundreds of lives were in jeopardy for a few seconds this morning as a local train in Mumbai lurched off course. The seven compartments of the train, operating on the Western Line, slid onto the adjoining track. Disaster was averted as an alert driver on the approaching train hit the brakes, preventing a collision. (
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"It is an unprecedented accident. The driver braked. Otherwise it could have been worse. We are probing the cause," said Shailendra Kumar Divisional Railway Manager of the Western Railways.
The coaches derailed just ahead of north Mumbai's Andheri, one of the city's busiest and biggest stations.
Because the train was moving slowly to pull out of the station when the accident took place, the injuries were minimal. Two people were hurt, with one suffering a minor fracture in the ankle.
The Western Railway is one one of the three lines in the city; it stops at 36 stations, linking the Northern suburbs where the majority of the people live to the business district of Churchgate.
Express and slow trains run on the Western Railway line; the former were knocked out of action after this morning's accident.
By this evening's rush hour, some of the derailed coaches had still not been cleared.
"Trains have been so delayed today. Luckily it happened as peak hour ended. But if it's not up by this evening, I won't reach home before midnight," said one commuter at Churchgate station who lives at the end of the route at Virar.Last evening,
a local train from Bandra derailed as it was approaching a platform at the city's main station, the Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), causing inconvenience to commuters during the peak hours.