Tech woes delay trains in Kollam

KOLLAM: Rail passengers here are a harassed lot with trains running out of schedule for the last several weeks. The public, including employees and students are the most affected.

“We cannot anticipate the delay though it has become a daily affair. It’s also started giving us trouble at our workplace as we reach quite late. It’s the women who are the worst hit as they reach home very late”, said K.Balakrishnan, a passenger and a Government employee in Thiruvananthapuram.

The delays are always caused by reasons like spotting fissures along the tracks and complaints in the signaling systems.

Three incidents of spotting fissures on the tracks near Edava, Perinadu, and Eravipuram were reported in the last one month. The fissures keep appearing because the tracks are pretty old.

“We get no time to replace the rails. Fissures are often spotted using ultrasonic flaw detection systems and are left clamped without changing the rail.

The rail lines in Kerala have been grossly over-utilised which is one of the reasons for its frequent wear and tear”, said A.Tasitus, Railway Traffic Inspector, Kollam.

Trains are run on these tracks with speed restrictions while maintenance is on. The lack of a separate corridor for freight service is also another reason for the wear and tear, say Railway officials, as the axle load is high for goods trains though their speed has been limited to 75 kmph.