Suburban trains delayed in Chennai due to mistake committed by station master, loco pilot

Siddharth Prabhakar| TNN | Nov 6, 2017, 18:34 IST




CHENNAI: A few suburban trains on the Tambaram-Chennai Beach route were delayed due to a mistake committed by the station master at Egmore station and the loco pilot of the train during peak hours on Monday morning.

Instead of routing the Thirumalpur-Chennai Beach fast EMU to platform number 2, the station master had routed it to platform seven and did the vice versa for a Tambaram slow train, said sources.

This caused the Thirumalpur-Chennai Beach train to stop between Chetpet and Egmore stations around 10am on Monday.

Dismayed by the delay, commuters got down on the tracks and began to walk towards Egmore.

C Vignesh, a commuter, posted photos of the dangerous situation where commuters were forced to walk on the tracks.

Senior railway officials said they were apprised of the mistake committed by the station master and the loco pilot and would take up an inquiry.

In May this year, the station master at the Basin Bridge cabin routed a Moore Market Complex-Tirupathi fast MEMU to a line meant for Gummidipoondi trains. This caused delays for close to two hours. Suburban commuters since then have faced the brunt as Southern Railway issued an order directing fast trains to run only on slow lines.