Passengers who had booked tickets to travel on the Vande Bharat Express towards Tirupati became restive and engaged in heated arguments with South Central Railway (SCR) officials at Secunderabad station after the train, with a scheduled departure time of 6.15 a.m. on Monday, arrived at the station six hours late around 12 noon.
Senior railway officials said a snag in the undergear spring equipment was detected during a maintenance check and the top portion had to be detached to replace the defective part of the chair car coach C-2 at the yard. This process, they said, took much time.
The train finally left the station around 12.15 p.m. and is scheduled to reach Tirupati only by 8 p.m., wheras the normal arrival time in Tirupati is 2.30 p.m.
Unique design causes trouble
The officials said that in conventional trains, the malfunctioning coach could be replaced with a functional one. “It is not possible [to do so] in Vande Bharat Express trains as it is a single train set and there is no spare rake (a train set),” they said.
The passengers had a harrowing experience waiting for the train as they were clueless about the technical snag. They had arrived at the station (on platform number 1 ) by 9.15 a.m. following an alert early in the morning about a three-hour delay. “We got another message saying it will start at 10 a.m., one at 10.45 a.m. and another at 11.15 a.m,” said S. Ajay, a passenger. No further official explanation was given to them, some of the passengers said.
The irate passengers barged into station master Rajnarsu’s cabin to demand the train status, but he was helpless. The railway police had to intervene to pacify the passengers and accommodated them in a reserved lounge till the train arrived.
The railway officials rushed to the station to pacify passengers as many had booked advance tickets for the darshan of Sri Venkateswara Swamy at the Tirumala Temple and were likely to miss the allotted slots. Some of the elderly passengers complained about having to take their medication as they had planned to take it with food on board.
Breakfast for lunch
Finally, after boarding the train, they were served breakfast at lunch time around 1 p.m.; running water, however, was not available in toilets till the train travelled for a considerable distance, said Anand, another passenger.
Senior officials said that without a spare rake, the entire Vande Bharat Express train has to be halted if there is a major snag. “So, the delays are always going to be longer. There is, however, no service on Tuesday, and we expect the maintenance staff to get the trains ready to run on time from Wednesday onwards,” said the officials.
Due to the late running of the incoming train, the return train from Tirupati will start at 8.45 p.m. instead of the regular 3.15 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive at Secunderabad staion at 4.45 a.m. on Tuesday instead of 11.30 p.m. on Monday.
The Tirupati service was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 8 earlier this year as an eight-coach train. It was increased to a 14-coach train a month later due to heavy demand. It can now carry 1,128 passengers.
