Around 12.30 p.m. Friday, several commuters from Airport Metro station, who were bound to Anna Nagar, Thirumangalam, Koyambedu and CMBT, boarded a metro train. But to their disbelief, it went on the wrong track and headed towards Guindy.
Perhaps, for the first time, a Metro train went on the wrong route, sources said.
The train in question left Airport, passed through Meenambakkam, Nanganallur, Alandur and then had to turn left to proceed to Central via Ekkattuthangal and Koyambedu. But the train crossed Alandur after which the operator realised he had taken the wrong route and was going towards Guindy.
“At a point, the operator realised the train had entered the wrong platform at Alandur Metro station. The train had to be rerouted to another track and brought back in the reverse direction,” a source said.
Such issues should never occur in public transport systems, the source said.
“If someone were to catch a bus or a train, they would have missed it and they will lose trust in this system. We cannot afford to let this happen, because we promise commuters that we will ensure they reach their destination on time,” the source added.
Many commuters lost nearly 15-20 minutes of their time as the train had to return to Alandur and then rerouted to the right track.
Chennai Metro has two corridors — Central to St. Thomas Mount via Koyambedu and Washermenpet to Airport via Guindy.
Apart from this, there are direct trains between Airport and Central.
Alandur Metro station serves as a junction for all three corridors and has two levels — trains going from Airport to Washermenpet take the lower level and those going on Airport-Central line via Koyambedu operate on the upper level. This train went to the lower level because of a technical glitch.
Action being taken’
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd., failure of the automatic route setting signal system caused the route to be set in the straight direction instead of diversion towards Koyambedu. “This is a rare case and the department concerned is taking action to avoid such a snag in future,” an official said.
