CHENNAI: Owing to signal failures at Chennai beach and the area between Park and Fort stations on Monday, suburban train traffic was thrown out of gear causing inconvenience to the public at large. It also led to train delays and cancellations. According to railway officials, the first signal failure occurred just outside Chennai beach station around 9.30 am which was rectified within 20 minutes. Later, around 10.30 am, there was a signal failure in the track between Chennai Park and Fort station, which took technicians close to 45 minutes to resolve.
During this period, trains arriving from Tambaram were re-routed from Park station, leading to frustration among passengers waiting at Beach station. The delays led to cancellation of a few services. At Chetpet station, a few trains were seen standing behind each other, as they didn’t get the signal to proceed further. This led to exasperated commuters getting down from the trains and walking towards the nearest road exit to catch buses and autos to reach their destination. A number of office-goers and students were affected due to the delay in services, which were restored only around 12 pm.