Indian
Railways runs thousands of trains daily and millions travel daily – trains
running in time catering to passengers do not make news and here is something
on those aberrations !!... before that here is a trivia – there are Express
Trains, Super Past, Passengers and Mails ….. understand that Mail trains
originally were trains that actually carried bags of mail to be delivered
between their termini or at intermediate stations, under special contracts with
the Post Office.
In
Apr 2009, 4 passengers were killed and
11 others injured when an “unidentified” person hijacked a suburban train and
drove it at high speed, resulting in a head-on collision with a goods train
hauling empty oil wagons at VyasarpadiJiva railway station. In Apr 2011
Railway officials in Jammu & Kashmir were caught napping as a train
from Qazigund in the Kashmir valley plied for over 20 kilometres without a
driver, leading to an inquiry for action against officials on duty. The train
stationed at Qazigund, started moving towards Anantnag without a driver at
around 2.00am, official sources said. After traversing a distance of 20kms, the
train came to a halt due to a steep gradient near Anantnag station, they said.
In
July 2014, in a shocking incident, a Delhi metro train ran with all its left
gates open between two stations on Thursday morning. It was reported in Indian
Express that the gates remained open for close to a minute and 25 seconds.The
incident took place on Yellow Line trainbwtweenArjangarh to Ghitorni station at
around 9:30 am. DMRC was quoted as
saying that it appeared to be an error by operator who reportedly was
suspended.
DNA
reported in Aug 2014, that the first double-decker train service between Mumbai
and Goa got off to an inauspicious start after the driver of the train halted
it at Roha for over an hour. The driver was slotted to pilot the train till
Ratnagiri. The train was stranded at Roha for over an hour, the drama having
started at 8:40pm. The train finally left for its destination at 9:50pm, by
which it had affected the schedules of other trains.As passengers in the train
fumed, an embarrassed Central Railway operations team had to send an SOS to
Konkan Railways to send in a replacement driver, called 'reliever', in railway
parlance.
In
another reported instance in Oct 2014, Lucknow-Vindhyachal City Express moved a
kilometre in reverse direction on
slanted railway track. It was reported
that the passengers of the Lucknow-
Vindhyachal Inter- City Express (14210) were in for a shock on Thursday when
the train reached the Vindhyachal Railway Station around 2.25 pm.
As
the train halted at the station, officials removed its engine to attach it to
the other side. However, its 20 coaches started rolling down the slanted track
towards Mirzapur before the officials could connect the engine to the other
side of the train. Fearing some untoward
incident, several passengers, who boarded the Lucknow- bound train, jumped off
the coaches and sustained severe injuries. The train finally came to a halt
only after it travelled for around one kilometer without the engine. The fear was more as three days earlier two
trains had collided in Gorakhpur, killing 14 passengers and leaving 45 injured.
That accident happened when Krishak
Express that was going from Varanasi to Gorakhpur hit Baraunibound train from behind
at a place near Gorakhpur.
Notwithstanding
incidents of a like nature, Indian Railways with such a vast network, is
generally efficient.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
24th
July 2015.
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