Passengers on Kolkata's vital North-South Metro corridor endured a frightening ordeal on Sunday after a sudden application of the emergency brake brought services to a grinding halt near Tollygunge station. The incident led to a major disruption lasting approximately one and a half hours, forcing commuters, including elderly citizens and children, to walk along the tracks to safety.
Panic and Evacuation on the Tracks
The crisis unfolded around 11:30 am when a north-bound train, heading towards Dakshineswar, came to an abrupt stop just before entering the Mahanayak Uttam Kumar (Tollygunge) station. The unexpected halt caused panic among those on board. After some time, with no immediate resolution, power to the third rail was cut off to facilitate a safe evacuation.
Passengers were then guided to walk on the tracks to reach the Tollygunge station platform. No train services operated between Maidan and the terminal Shahid Khudiram (Briji) stations until 1 pm. During this period, truncated services were maintained only on the section from Maidan to Dakshineswar.
A Recurring Problem at the Same Spot
Alarmingly, this was the second such disruption at virtually the same location within a span of just 11 days. On December 17, evening rush hour services were crippled for nearly an hour when a Shahid Khudiram-bound train stopped suddenly after leaving Tollygunge station. That incident, which occurred after sundown making evacuation more precarious, was attributed to the inadvertent pulling of the rake's parking brake.
Frustrated passengers expressed their anger at Metro authorities. "The corridor, which is the city's transportation lifeline, seems to have become a source of daily harassment. Every other day there is some problem," said Aghya Das, who was assisting his elderly mother navigate the tracks during Sunday's evacuation.
Operational Challenges and Passenger Fallout
A Metro official explained the operational constraint that limited service restoration. "Since there is no crossover facility in the southern stations beyond Maidan, we could only run trains from Maidan to Dakshineswar," the official stated. A Metro spokesperson confirmed the incident was due to the sudden application of an emergency brake and that normal services along the entire Blue Line resumed from 1 pm after passengers were safely evacuated.
The root cause of the emergency brake activation is currently under investigation. In the aftermath of the disruption, long queues formed outside Tollygunge station as stranded commuters sought alternative transport. Uttarpara resident Pradip Khastagir recounted his experience, "I waited for 20 minutes. When there was no announcement on when services would resume, I took a bus to Maidan station to travel to Dakshineswar."
The back-to-back failures on a critical stretch of the city's underground lifeline have raised serious questions about operational reliability and passenger safety protocols, especially during evacuations.
