Hundreds left stranded at Thrissur railway station

Thrissur/Palakkad: Commenting on the reasons for the accident, officials at Thrissur Station said that it was a routine practice for keymen of the railways to inspect both the rails in their respective areas between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. everyday.  They claimed that no cracks were reported on the rail.   Meanwhile, hundreds of passengers who arrived in Thrissur station and those who had reserved ticket to board train from here had a tough time on Sunday as the rail traffic between Thrissur and Ernakulam came to a standstill due to the derailing of the Thiruvanathapuram-Mangalore Express at Karukutty.

Those who reserved the tickets to start their journey from here had to either postpone or travel by road from Thrissur to the northern side to Palakkad/Shoranur/Kuttipuram stations to catch their train either in general compartments or on open tickets to board reserved compartments. Those travelling towards Thrivananthapuram could catch KSRTC buses free, provided by the Railways, at Thrissur KSRTC depot to Ernakulam Town Railway Station. “We provided 14 KSRTC buses for a total of 1,045 passengers from Thrissur to Ernakulam free with the railways paying Rs 1.95 lakh on account of bus fare,” Joseph Ninan, Thrissur Railway Station manager told DC.

In view of the accident, the Thiruvanathapuram-Chennai mail began its journey from Thrissur at 8.25 p.m. on Sunday and Kochuveli-Bangalore Express started from here at 9.50 p.m. In Thrissur Railway Station, out of the six tracks, the tracks at Platform one and two were kept vacant for any emergency rail traffic through the station from Palakkad side to Chalakkudy. On the remaining four tracks, Bangalore-Kochuveli Express which arrived here at 2.55 a.m. on Sunday, Chennai-Thiruvanathapuram mail which reached here at 9 a.m., Kerala Express that arrived in Thrissur at 11.30 p.m. and Mangala Express Nizamuddin-Ernakulam (which arrived at 1.30 pm)  were shunted from the main tracks to platform three and four and to two tracks at the yard.  Due to heavy traffic at Palakkad Junction due to stoppage of rail traffic from Thrissur to Ernakulam after the accident, some trains from Palakkad were diverted through the new Pollachi- Dindigul line.