ByThirty-five long-distance trains including the Rajdhani and August Kranti Express were delayed by eight-and-a-half hours after a track maintenance machine malfunctioned on the Gholwad-Dahanu stretch a little after midnight on Thursday.The malfunction in the Plasser Quick Relaying System shut down Mumbai-bound rail traffic and also delayed trains like the Golden Temple Mail, Vadodara-Mumbai and Jaipur-Mumbai Superfast trains.Passengers like Ramesh Shah opted for alternate means of transport. “I waited for half-an-hour, and then took a cab as I had to reach my Andheri office for an important meeting at 11 am,” Shah said. Most passengers, however, had to wait for the line to be cleared.Shailesh Goel, a former member of the Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee, said many trains were held up between Walsad and Gholwad leaving passengers with little access to water and food.While Western Railway claimed suburban trains were not affected, sources said the beyond-schedule entry of 35 long-distance trains into the suburban network delayed local trains as well.A senior WR official said the machinery malfunctioned during a scheduled two-and-a-half hour maintenance block which began at 10.30 pm. “The problem started at midnight when a machine part broke. We arranged for a crane to clear the tracks before 8.30 am,” Shailendra Kumar, Divisional Railway Manager for WR’s Central Division said.