Metro Rail commuters, used to the monotonous announcements, were in for a surprise when they were treated to lilting instrumental music on Wednesday evening.
A glitch in the communication system had resulted in music being played instead of information about arrival and departure of trains. “On Wednesday evening, an essential testing work related to telecommunication system was carried out and inadvertently, instead of announcements, instrumental music began playing throughout the system. After 20 minutes, the issue was resolved and the announcements were back in all stations. Usually, we ensure such glitches don’t occur but this time we didn’t see it coming. We will make sure such snags don’t happen again” a source said.
This issue happened while the staff were testing a software in the Operation Control Centre at Koyambedu, another source said. “The issue was restricted to stations and not in trains; so, passengers on board got the announcements and knew what the next station was; otherwise, this would have resulted in confusion,” another source said.
In six years since starting operations, there have been numerous incidents caused by snags, but this is the first time, a glitch resulted in music began played in stations.
