When officials realised two trains were proceeding on the same track in the Madurai-Virudhunagar section on Thursday, there was a frantic but successful attempt to bring both trains to a halt.
Sources said the error could have happened because of bungling in the exchange of information by two station masters over allowing a passenger train with a Line Clear Ticket (written order), following signal failure at the Tirumangalam railway station.
The trains were around 12 km apart on the single line broadgauge section, when the Shencottah-Madurai passenger train was stopped by the station master of Kalligudi with the help of a gatekeeper at Sivarakottai. The incident occurred around 7.30 p.m.
Blame game
However, the Tirumangalam station master was able to stop the other train — the Madurai-Shencottah passenger — after it had chugged ahead some 200 metres. The locomotive of the train, by then, had crossed the starter signal of the station, railway sources said.
Divisional Railway Manager V.R. Lenin said an enquiry had been ordered into the incident. Railway sources said both station masters were blaming each other on the procedure followed in giving the LCT, a written order given by the station master to the locopilot to pass the signal following signal failure. “The procedure is that the LCT is given by the station master of the particular station in consultation with the station master of the other station which the train is headed to,” a railway official said. The procedure is ensured by exchanging a private number.
“If the private number was exchanged, the Kalligudi station master should not have allowed his train (the Madurai-bound passenger) to pass the station towards Tirumangalam. Only after both the station masters spoke on the railway line, did they realise the lapse in safety,” the source added.
The Madurai-Shencottah train was pulled back to allow the other train to pass after some 30 minutes of detention.