Passengers wait at Tatanagar railway station. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, Oct. 12: Passengers faced a tough time as long distance trains ran several hours late after a truck collided with the Pune-Howrah Express early this morning.

Passengers, who had come to the Tatanagar railway station, had to wait for hours altogether. Movement of trains became normal after nearly seven hours.

Dinesh Kumar, a commuter, reached Tatanagar Railway Station at 2am to board the Howrah-Ahmedabad Express to reach Gujarat. But his train arrived station at 10.13am. Amit Agarwal, a student of Delhi University, reached the station at 6am to board Puri New Delhi Purushottam Express. He was fortunate that his train arrived at the station at 11.30am

The long-distance trains, arriving from Howrah and Puri, were reportedly running late due to the collision of a truck with Pune-Howrah Express between Jhargram and Ginni (Bengal) around 2.20am. No casualties were reported.

It took almost seven hours for trains to resume service. Howrah-Ahmedabad Express arrived at the Tatanagar railway station around 10 hours late while Puri New Delhi Purushottam Express, too, reached about six hours after schedule.

Other north-bound long distance trains which run via Tatanagar railway station, too, were reportedly running late. Even local trains like Tata-Kharagpur passenger and Kharagpur-Tata passenger were far behind time.

A senior railway official (Chakradharpur division) said: “The engineering department had been able to clear the railway track in the morning. Later, the movement of trains became normal,” the senior railway official said.

Barricade clash

In another incident, a wooden loaded mini truck dashed into a barricade of Jugsalai railway crossing that led to fall of high tension electricity wire this evening paralysing movement of trains.

There were no casualties .

Only a single route was opened for goods as well as passenger trains.