Six wagons of a goods train derailed at Sevur on the Katpadi-Jolarpet section on Sunday leaving thousands travelling between Chennai and Bengaluru stranded for a few hours near Jolarpet in Vellore. Southern Railway officials said the derailment of wagons in the early morning delayed eight long distance trains bound for Chennai. Passengers were held up near the Katpadi railway station for two to three hours.
Many trains from Chennai going towards destinations on the Bengaluru and Coimbatore routes were also delayed by more than two hours. R. Sankaran, a resident of Tiruvallur, had booked a ticket on Bangalore Express to catch another train to Shimoga. The derailment delayed his train by more than two-and-half hours. He had to take a flight as he missed the connecting train to Shimoga.
Top officials led by Chennai Divisional Railway Manager Naveen Gulati rushed to the spot along with breakdown teams and equipment to oversee restoration work. From Chennai, Brindavan (Chennai to Bengaluru), Shatabdi Express (Chennai to Coimbatore), double decker (Chennai to Bengaluru), Bangalore Express (Chennai to Bengaluru), Intercity Express (Chennai to Coimbatore), Trivandrum Express (Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram) and Lalbagh Express (Chennai to Bengaluru) were delayed by more than two hours, officials said.
By noon, three wagons of the six wagons that derailed were back on track. Restoration work was completed at 5 p.m. paving way for normalisation of services.