Hundreds of train passengers were stranded at Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station and other stations across Bengaluru as more than 20 trains could not depart on schedule early March 9 morning owing to a disruption in electricity supply. Many trains scheduled to arrive in Bengaluru from other destinations were also held up and took hours to reach Yeshwantpur, KSR Bengaluru, Cantonment and other stations.
South Western Railway (SWR) officials attributed the disruption in power supply to a bird that got entangled in an overhead electricity cable around 5.10 a.m. This resulted in the grounding of an electric switch.
“Electricity supply failed on the KSR Bengaluru-Yelahanka line resulting in detention of around 20 trains, including those operated on long distance routes,” said Aneesh Hegde, Chief PRO of SWR.
Among the trains detained were Bengaluru–Chennai Shatabdi Express (train number 12028) and Lalbagh Express (12608).
‘Train running four hours late’
Office-goers who use train services on the Bengaluru-Mysuru and Bengaluru-Whitefield lines were inconvenienced. Many passengers vented their ire on social media demanding a proper response from SWR.
“Mysuru super-fast express 12785 is railgadi or bailgadi? It was more than three hours late and still stopped at Yelahanka station. Why are you wasting people’s time?” said one commuter on Twitter.
Another commuter, Srikanth Tumma, said that his train from Kacheguda to Mysuru was running four hours late and was held up at Yelahanka.
In a Twitter post, Sunil Patra said that the train he was travelling in halted for one hour at each station after entering Bengaluru. Ravi S., who travelled from Karwar to Bengaluru, said that the train stopped for more than one hour outside Bengaluru.
“What is the use of paying for a premium ticket in Rajdhani Express if it gets delayed for more than two hours.” asked another passenger on Twitter.
Mr. Hegde said that SWR managed to restore the power supply by 8 a.m. “On some of the routes, we operated diesel locos. Train services on Bengaluru-Mysuru and Bengaluru-Jolarpettai routes were restored by 9 a.m., but not on the Bengaluru-Dharmavaram line,” he added.
