CHENNAI: A technical problem in the control room at the Chennai Beach station led to ‘bunching’ of suburban trains from Tambaram and Velachery on the same track for nearly two kilometres around noon on Monday.
Systems in the control room of Chennai Beach hung up for about 45 minutes around 11:45 AM, because of which railway staff had to manually work on the signals for about 2 km from Beach up to Park station. As a result, trains on the two routes were stuck for around 45 minutes.
As trains stood still, commuters were seen getting down from trains and making their way to the stations. Men and children were able to jump out, but women and elderly commuters faced trouble and stayed put inside the trains.
Around eight trains on the Beach-Tambaram route and four on the Beach-Velachery route were stuck, sources said.
During the period, some trains from Tambaram were operated from the Park station as the Beach-Park route was clogged. “We had to move carefully to ensure passenger safety. The services were restored after systems were back to normal,” a railway official said.