Faulty AC trips up Metro on rally day

KOLKATA: Disruption of services for the second day running, that too on a day when there were few buses and taxis on the streets, left Metro Railway officials red in the face on Monday.
Unlike on every such occasion, the officials couldn't blame the disruption on the fleet of old, obsolete rakes. The one involved in Monday's disruption in services was an air-conditioned one that is barely two years old.
Trouble started around 6.15pm when a Dum Dum-bound AC rake attempted to start from the Central station. The motorman disengaged the brakes but the train refused to start. After efforts to rectify the problem failed, passengers were asked to get off the train. Engineers and technical staff were then taken to the station to have a look. By then, most of the passengers had left the station and searched for ways to get back home from Chittaranjan Avenue. The Trinamool Congress' Shahid Diwas programme was held a few hundred yards away and surface transport was scarce throughout the day.
Most buses that came the passengers' way were bursting from the seams. The few taxis that passed by had passengers. "It was a complete mess. All of a sudden, a few hundred passengers emerged from the Metro station and started looking for surface transport. While the younger men succeeded in getting on packed buses, the women and elderly faced a lot of problems. It was office time and no empty taxis were available," a passenger said.
"The trouble shooting team finally managed to rectify the problem and the rake started at 7.14 pm. The passengers waiting at the station got into the train and reached their destinations. The exact cause of the disruption could not be ascertained immediately. The motorman reported 'no-motoring'. There is also a possibility of brake-binding. We ran truncated services but this may not have helped much as most passengers during the evening peak hour board trains between the Rabindra Sadan and Mahatma Gandhi Road stations," a Metro official said.
On Sunday evening, there was a stampede like situation at the Chandni Chowk station after passengers heard an explosion and saw smoke emanating from under the non-AC rake they were travelling in. Many passengers were injured as they made a mad rush for the escalator of the platform.
"Such things are happening as maintenance of the rakes isn't adequate. The maintenance staff are forced to certify rakes and hand them over for commercial services even before they can carry out all checks. In many cases, the brake pressure in the rakes is inadequate and this leads to brake binding. Unless the number of rakes is increased, such problems will continue to occur. At present, the AC rakes are under a lot of pressure as the fleet of seven old non-AC rakes can't be used much. Maintenance of the AC rakes is also a problem as many technicians have no training in handling them," a source in the Metro said.