Railway stations on the Central line, especially Thane, witnessed heavy crowding during the morning rush hour on Wednesday as the authorities had to resort to the age-old, reliable and yet time-consuming method of paper chit sanction for clearance of each train after some miscreants tampered with a signal box at Panvel and damaged the cables. The signal box was restored by 7.05 am. This affected the services heavily with over 100 trains impacted, including delay in 82 services and cancellation of 40.

“At Thane, the effect was felt more due to narrow platforms for the trans-harbour line and last-minute switching of departing trains from platform 10 to platform 9, which led to crowds gathering on the bridge too. The 9.39 am Panvel local came on platform 9 instead of 10 and the 9.47 am Nerul service also arrived on the same platform, leading to people running here and there. Overall, the delay led to a chaotic situation in the morning,” said Ranjan Srivastava, a commuter.