Passengers of Chennai Metro Rail were in for a shock on Friday evening as the trains were delayed and stopped for a long time at stations due to a glitch.
Trains began running late from 4.30 p.m. on Wimco Nagar-Chennai airport and Chennai Central-St. Thomas Mount stretches. According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL), the services were delayed in both stretches by 10 minutes during the peak hour and non-peak hours.
A team of officials were put on the job to rectify the issue. Sources said the delay was caused due to an issue in the signalling system and that for the last two days, trains faced other minor signalling issues too.
Passengers said that the delay was much longer than 10 minutes and were disappointed that the information regarding the delay came in only after a few hours. A lot of commuters took to social media to talk about the issues they faced due to the delays.
Kandan posted: “There seems to be some disruption in Chennai metro service. But no public announcement by @ChennaiMetRail leaving passengers high and dry.”
M. Ahmad Munir said: “We are standing in AG DMS metro for more than 45 minutes, no train towards Airport Metro.”
Bala J., who travelled between Chennai Central and Thyagaraya College, said many of his co-passengers were tense as they did not know why the trains stopped and were not moving.
Prakash S, who travels from Ashok Nagar to Government Estate regularly, said the trains stopped for 10 minutes in Ashok Nagar and Vadapalani. “After that, since I did not want to get delayed further, I got off and took an auto to my destination,” he added.
Since most passengers took Metro trains to travel to Chennai Central, Chennai airport and other transport hubs, they were anxious about missing their train or flight owing to the delay.
