An operational glitch in Tiruvallur resulted in the MRTS (Mass Rapid Transit System) services getting affected on Tuesday morning.
A defect in the track in Tiruvallur had a “cumulative effect,” a senior Southern Railway official said, adding that the rakes for the MRTS services arrive at the Beach Station from Avadi every morning.
At least three MRTS services were cancelled and a number of services delayed as the rakes could not leave Beach Station on time.
This added to the woes of commuters, who have been complaining about problems on the MRTS line for a week now. Attributing the persistent service delays to frequent power supply outages, the official said that an electrical problem that surfaced a week ago due to the failure of the TNEB substation at Chepauk is yet to be fully rectified.
Since the signalling system malfunctions in case of power failure or low voltage power, the trains have been operating based on manual commands from station masters. This results in delay. “Unlike other sections of the suburban rail network, the MRTS signalling system does not have a secondary power line that is battery-fed or that can take the supply from overhead cables,” the official said. He said the electrical grid failure would be rectified shortly and generators would also be used as an additional source of power.
“Within three months, we would introduce power line redundancies, which can be used in case the primary supply line fails, on the MRTS segment similar to those present in the suburban system,” he added.
On an average, over 80,000 commuters use train services on the MRTS every day.
A defect in the track in Tiruvallur had a “cumulative effect,” a senior Southern Railway official said, adding that the rakes for the MRTS services arrive at the Beach Station from Avadi every morning.
At least three MRTS services were cancelled and a number of services delayed as the rakes could not leave Beach Station on time.
This added to the woes of commuters, who have been complaining about problems on the MRTS line for a week now. Attributing the persistent service delays to frequent power supply outages, the official said that an electrical problem that surfaced a week ago due to the failure of the TNEB substation at Chepauk is yet to be fully rectified.
Since the signalling system malfunctions in case of power failure or low voltage power, the trains have been operating based on manual commands from station masters. This results in delay. “Unlike other sections of the suburban rail network, the MRTS signalling system does not have a secondary power line that is battery-fed or that can take the supply from overhead cables,” the official said. He said the electrical grid failure would be rectified shortly and generators would also be used as an additional source of power.
“Within three months, we would introduce power line redundancies, which can be used in case the primary supply line fails, on the MRTS segment similar to those present in the suburban system,” he added.
On an average, over 80,000 commuters use train services on the MRTS every day.
