Odisha train crash: All 127 TN passengers safe, mostly travelled in AC coaches sustaining lesser damages
CHENNAI: All 127 passengers identified as hailing from Tamil Nadu, who were affected by Friday’s three-train pile-up, are safe and accounted for TN sports minister, Udhayanidhi Stalin, said in Chennai on Sunday on returning from his visit to Odisha. Udhayanidhi, transport minister SS Sivasankar and three IAS officers had visited the state to help coordinate rescue efforts.
The news sparked the question of how TN passengers escaped largely unharmed from one of the worst train accidents in the country’s history. Of the 787 passengers who boarded the Coromandel Express for Chennai (from Shalimar (525), Kharagpur (199), and Balasore (63) stations), the state government identified 127 as TN residents based on their names and residential addresses. All of them are safe and only one is being treated at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital after arriving in the city on Sunday morning.
A key factor behind their escape, industry sources suggested, is the preference of TN passengers for travelling in air-conditioned coaches. The AC coaches sustained less damage compared to the sleeper and general class coaches of the train during the accident.
“Over the past 18 months, ticket demand on the Howrah-Chennai route has increased significantly, leading to an influx of unreserved passengers in reserved sleeper coaches. As a result, many tend to choose AC coaches, which may have contributed to their higher survival rate,” said K Baskar, former member of the Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee, Chennai.
Many from TN may not have boarded train: Experts
When the Coromandel Express collided with a stationary goods train at Bahanaga Bazar station on Friday, the first five coaches following the locomotive bore the brunt of the crash. The composition of the Coromandel Express is a locomotive, followed by two general class coaches, then five sleeper coaches, a pantry car, nine 3rd AC coaches, two 2nd AC coaches, two 1st AC coaches, a power generator (EOG)-cum-disabled coach, and a guard coach.
“I was in coach A2, which was the fifth coach from the rear. All of us fell from our berths as the coach derailed. On exiting my compartment, I noticed that the first few coaches had been completely crushed. Many of us decided to jump off the train and took a bus to Bhubaneswar,” a traveller from Salem recounted.
Another factor, according to sources from the Railway’s commercial department, is that TN residents mainly use the Coromandel Express to travel between Chennai and Bhubaneshwar, Visakhapatnam, and Vijayawada. As the train hadn’t crossed Bhadrak (Odisha), a large number of Tamil travellers might not have boarded the train, an official said. Passengers from Shalimar/Howrah choose to book their tickets up to Chennai (end to end) to secure confirmed tickets under the general quota, even if their actual destination is Visakhapatnam or another station on the route, an official said.
“This approach ensures a higher chance of obtaining confirmed tickets under the general quota, whereas booking tickets up to their actual destination may fall under the pooled quota, which has limited tickets. That is why we have large bookings to Chennai but fewer passengers from the state.”
A Giri, member of DRUCC, Tiruchy, opined that the Grand Trunk or Tamil Nadu expresses are favoured by TN passengers due to the limited availability of trains to New Delhi from outside of Chennai. “However, with separate trains now connecting Howrah to Tiruchy, Kanniyakumari, and other destinations in Kerala, catering to the western districts, the Coromandel Express and Howrah Mail (from Chennai) are primarily utilised by residents of Chennai. Hence, it may have less patronage from Shalimar,” he said.