Tension prevails at Tirusulam station after Pondicherry - Egmore express skips station

CHENNAI: Tension prevailed in Tirusulam on Monday morning after the Pondicherry-Egmore express skipped the Tirusulam railway station. The panicked passengers shouted and attempted to stop the train by pulling the emergency chain.

The Pondicherry-Egmore express train that runs via Villupuram, Tindivanam, Chengalpattu, Tambaram, Tirusulam, Guindy, and Mambalam departs from Pondicherry at 5.35 am and reaches Egmore at 9.30 am. The train would most often be crowded with office goers travelling from Pondicherry, Villupuram, Melmaruvathur, Maduranthagam, and Chengalpattu to Chennai.

The train stops at Tirusulam railway station on platform 3 or 4 for a minute every day in the morning and evening, as many workers from the Chennai airport and nearby areas take the express train. On Monday, the train departed from Tambaram at 8.45 am and was approaching Tirusulam at high speed. It was scheduled to arrive at Tirusulam at 8:53 am and depart at 8:54 am with a one-minute train halt.

Intending to get off at Tirusulam, alert passengers gathered near the doors of the coaches. However, the train did not stop at Tirusulam, and passengers shocked over this attempted to pull the emergency chain to stop the train. Meanwhile, the train guard quickly communicated with the engine drivers via walkie-talkie to inform them they had missed the stop.

Then the drivers halted the express train about 150 meters to Meenambakkam, between Tirusulam and Meenambakkam railway stations. As the train stopped in the middle of the track with no platform, the passengers were confused about how to disembark. Eventually, they got down with difficulty using the small ladders fixed near the coach doors. Most of them jumped, as some coaches didn’t have any ladders.

Rail users argued with the guard about the incident, and the train departed after five minutes. When contacted, the Tambaram railway officials said they were not aware of the incident.