A ‘mechanical fault’ in a Metro rake disrupted services for an hour on Monday afternoon. A New Garia-bound train stuttered to a halt at Sovabazar station around 12.10pm. Despite multiple efforts, the train could not be started.
The passengers were evacuated after around 30 minutes. After a temporary repair job, the empty train left for the car shed in New Garia around 1.10pm, said Metro officials.
“We ran truncated services between Central and New Garia stations till the resumption of full services around 1.04pm,” said a Metro official.
Passengers on the train alleged that they were stuck in the compartments in suffocating conditions.
“Barely after two compartments had left the station, the train came to an abrupt halt. The AC went off. It became suffocating. The doors were not opening. After around 25 minutes, Metro staff entered through the driver’s cabin and manually opened the doors to evacuate us,” said a passenger who boarded the train from Belgachhia and was headed towards Esplanade.
The snag, which came on the first working day after a long weekend, would have been much worse had it happened during peak office hours. But even in the afternoon, it led to a torrid time for thousands of commuters.
Many passengers were seen outside stations, waiting for public transport under the blazing sun. The Metro runs an all-AC fleet now. The train that got stuck on Monday was from the older lot, said an official.
“The nature of the snag is not known. A detailed examination will reveal it,” said a senior official.
Metro Railway has been banking on a fleet of newer trains to replace its age-prone fleet. All the non-AC rakes have been discarded. But even the new AC rakes have had a bumpy start because of a series of snags.
