Passengers at the Madurai Railway Junction resorted to a rail-roko following delay in departure 
Chennai

Loco pilots’ sudden stir leaves trains stranded

A sudden protest by the loco pilots at Madurai Railway Junction in the wee hours of Thursday resulted in a rail roko by the affected passengers. Owing to the chaos, several trains to the southern districts were delayed.

migrator

Madurai

The protest was initiated by the locomotive driver of Coimbatore-Nagercoil Express which reached the Madurai Junction at 2 am. It was followed by Pearl City Express, running from Chennai to Thoothukudi, and other express trains to southern districts. 

Pearl City Express reached Madurai Junction at 4 am and the loco pilot of the train disappeared suddenly. The train, scheduled to depart at 4.05 am did not start and irate passengers then staged a rail roko and did not allow other trains to pass by. Railway officials held talks with the passengers and after they promised to find replacement drivers, the agitators were pacified. 

A member of SRMU, on condition of anonymity, said that due to shortage of staff, goods train drivers were forced to operate express trains. On Wednesday two goods train drivers who operated express trains did not manage the speed and crossed the signal at Mathur near Villipuram.

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