By the end of the day, many journeys were cancelled and many weary travellers finally reached their destinations hours behind schedule
Trains stranded at Egmore station after the rain. (Photo: DC)
Chennai: Passengers had a tough commute on Friday as rains submerged tracks, leading to delays and cancellations. While many EMU passengers had to disembark trains stuck on flooded tracks and walk to the nearest station, long distance travellers spent hours at Chennai Central waiting for information on the status of their trains. By the end of the day, many journeys were cancelled and many weary travellers finally reached their destinations hours behind schedule.
“It is alarming and moreover embarrassing when I was informed before two hours that the train was cancelled. When enquired, they said it was due to signal failure and water logging,” said T.P. Thomas, a retired engineer who was informed at the reservation centre that the Vijayawada based Pinakini express was cancelled 30 minutes prior to the journey.
Rain hits flight services
A number of flights from Chennai took off late on Friday morning because a large number of passengers and some crewmembers were stranded in water-logged streets of the city and it took hours for them to reach the airport. Though no flights were diverted to other cities, flights to Thoothukudi were cancelled because of bad visibility there.
Take offs were delayed due to late arrival of passengers and crew members, while landings were affected due to heavy rains, during which pilots preferred to make rounds rather than touching down.
The schedule of at least 30 flights was affected on Friday morning at the Chennai airport, sources said. “Two flights to Thoothukudi and two originating from there were cancelled due to bad weather. Otherwise all flights operated in Chennai airport till afternoon with a delay of 15 to 40 minutes delay,” airport sources said.
Sources also added that the flights were forced to wait for passengers because in most of the cases not even 50 per cent of the travellers could not reach the airport on time. There were no incidents of water-logging on runways as there was enough gap between spells of rains.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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