KOCHI: A fire near a railway track going towards Ernakulam Town from the South Railway Station early on Sunday morning caused signal failure leading to disruption in the train services for around three hours. However, the services were restored after the signalling process was switched over to manual operations.
According to Nithin Nobert, Ernakulam area manager, the signalling system on the line towards the Ernakulam Town railway station from Junction railway station broke down after the wires got destroyed in the fire that spread from a nearby waste dump. "We don't know who set the waste on fire. However, we have notified the Corporation and have requested them to remove the waste alongside the tracks under the Operation Breakthrough project," he said.
"The only train that was most affected was the Antodaya Express. It got delayed for three hours. However, once the signalling process was shifted to manual operations, the services restarted," he said. According to him, the restoration work is in progress and will be completed as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, some of the trains got rescheduled. 56370 Ernakulam Jn-Guruvayur passenger which was scheduled to depart at 6:00 am was rescheduled and left the station at 8:40 am. 56373 Guruvayur-Thrissur passenger left at 11:45 am. The actual time was 9:05 am.
56374 Thrissur-Guruvayur passenger was rescheduled to leave at 12:45 pm from 11:10 am, while 56375 Guruvayur-Ernakulam passenger train left at 2:05 pm, an hour late from its scheduled 1:05 pm departure time.