Commuters on the Down Naihati-Sealdah local crane their necks for a glimpse of the site of Wednesday’s accident as the train speeds past the area on Thursday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Metro boarded the first compartment of the Down Naihati-Sealdah local from Belgharia station a day after Wednesday’s tragedy and found that only two things had changed — the train was on time and most passengers were wary of hanging out of the compartment.

The train, crowded as usual, left Belgharia station at 9.21am. As passengers jostled for space in the packed compartment, someone shouted: “Kaal ja holo tarpor aaj ontoto rod-ey jhultey bolben na dadara…ektu jayga din (After what happened yesterday, don’t expect us to hang from the rods…please make some room).”

Around eight passengers were standing at the gate, trying hard to keep their bodies inside the compartment. Rajkumar Mahato and Kallol Sarkar were hanging out from the same compartment on Wednesday when they crashed into a defunct transformer pole and died instantly.

“Dada, ektu egote din (Please let us move in a little),” said one of the passengers.

When the train approached the spot where Wednesday’s accident occurred, passengers craned their necks and pointed in the direction of where the transformer pole that killed Rajkumar and Kallol stood before the railway authorities sawed it off.

“Oi jey. Oi khaney hoyechhilo. Aaro koto oi rokom post royechhey, ekta ketey hobey ki? Roji eirokom kando hotey paarey (There it is. That’s where it happened. There are numerous such posts, what’s the point in removing just one? Such mishaps can occur every day),” said 34-year-old Mrigen Soor, a state government employee, as six-year-old son Mrinal pestered him to show him the “exact spot” through a window.

Shopkeeper Biresh Maity, 38, said such accidents would continue to occur as long as passengers and the railway authorities remained callous. “We will read about these incidents in the papers and get on with our lives.”

Metro noticed several instances of accidents waiting to happen. Shuddhendu Ray, an 18-year-old BBA student in a Sector V institute, and three of his friends failed to enter an overcrowded train at Belgharia station but wouldn’t let go of the door handle.

As the train started moving, homemaker Mala Bhattacharyya, 52, couldn’t stop herself from yelling at them. “Will you never learn? Why are you risking your lives?”

An embarrassed Shuddhendu got off but his friends didn’t.

“The entire day will go by if we keep waiting for an empty train,” the youth said.

He jumped into the Naihati local even before the train came to a halt.

— Meghdeep Bhattacharyya