Damage to equipment strands train, traffic hit for about 7 hrs

Equipment damage to a Thiruvananthapuram bound Express train forced it to a halt at nearby Arakkonam today, affecting traffic for about seven hours, but there was no casualties, a top railway official said.
The loco pilot of the Guwahati-Trivandrum Express stopped the train at Sitheri near Arakkonam at around 9.15 AM, nearly two hours after it left Chennai, after he heard a rumbling noise from the coaches and found it difficult to navigate the locomotive.
"Electricity generating equipment in the coach's underframe and cylindrical pole like buffers got damaged," Divisional Railway Manager, Southern Railway, P K Mishra told PTI.
Experts rushed to the spot and the two affected coaches were detached. Sixty passengers travelling in them were accommodated in the same train.

Mishra ruled out sabotage as the reason for the damage and said a departmental probe has already been ordered. "Our experts will look into it. We, however, do not suspect any sabotage."
The train left for its onward destination at 3.30 PM after being stranded for a little over six hours.
In the meantime, seven trains running on the busy section had to be halted.