Motorman forgets to stop fast train at Byculla station

Byculla: In a freak incident, a motorman completely forgot to halt his train at the Byculla station on the Central Railway. As a result, the fast train went directly to CST from Dadar and commuters had to catch another train from the CST to go to Byculla. Railway officials said that the motorman was extremely lucky that he was not manhandled by irate commuters.

Motorman R.T. Singh, who forgot to stop the train, has been temporarily taken off duty until an enquiry into the incident is complete.

The incident took place at around 1.36 pm on Thursday. CR officials said that a special fast train was plied from Kalyan to make up for the many services that were cancelled in the morning due to torrential rains.

A CR official, on condition of anonymity, said, “The train was an extra train which was run as the usual services had got cancelled due to the rains in the morning. Unfortunately the motorman did the unthinkable. He was lucky that the commuters did not resort to violence, probably because it was not during peak hours.”

There have been instances in the past when motormen have jumped signals or overshot a platform. However, this was the third incident this year when a motorman did not stop the train at the scheduled stop at all.

CR chief public relations officer, Narendra Patil said, “An enquiry into the matter is going on and the reason behind it is being looked into.”