Overhead wire snaps, Beach-Chengalpattu suburban train services disrupted

CHENNAI: Suburban train services on the Beach–Chengalpattu section were disrupted during the evening peak on Tuesday (July 14) leaving commuters struggling to get to the destination on time.

The issue, which lasted more than an hour after an overhead electric wire snapped near Beach railway station, had led to frustrations among the commuters and affected operations on one of the city's busiest commuter corridors.

“Its been more than an hour. We’re stuck at the beach station. In order to reach Tambaram officials ask us to go to park station or hop in on Velachery EMU,” a frustrated commuter said. The disruption left several EMU services halted near Beach station, causing hardship to thousands of commuters, including office-goers, students and daily passengers.

Following the disruption, trains that normally originate from Beach station were operated from Park station instead.

Railway authorities advised passengers to use Park or Egmore stations to board suburban trains until services from Beach were restored. “There had been no proper announcement and officials here were irresponsive or pounced on us. Officials in ticket counters are Hindi-speaking people and they don't understand what we were saying,” said another commuter.

With trains not operating from the station, many passengers also walked to Park station to board available services. Officials said that the issue happened due to the redevelopments going on in the Egmore station and that the overhead equipment had been restored.