Indian train travels 980km in wrong direction...

[Ponce]

Indian train travels 980km in wrong direction... without any rail staff noticing.

Passengers furious as they end up FIVE HOURS away from destination
By Martin Robinson

Last updated at 7:44 PM on 20th September 2011

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More than a thousand furious rail passengers stormed a station office after they noticed the train they were on had gone 980km in the WRONG direction.

As the packed service pulled into the Indian city of Warangal people on board went berserk as they realised they were five hours away from where they should have been and no staff on board had noticed.
The train departed the southern town of Tirupati heading for the eastern city of Bhubaneswar.
You're going the wrong way! A signalling mistake sent the train 600 miles away from its next stop
It was when it arrived at an interchange at Vijayawada it went wrong, as it was due to swing north to its eventual destination of Varanasi, one of India's holiest cities.
India's signalling system is run on codes but instead of entering the three-letters for its next intended stop Bhubaneswar (BBS) staff put in the code for Bilaspur (BSP) sending the train in completely the wrong direction.
Experts were amazed the service did not crash as it went for 600 miles on the completely wrong track.
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'Though the journey was agonising, we thank our stars that the train did not run into another train,' an angry passenger said.

Embarrassed staff, some of whom were apparently asleep on that leg of the journey, also blamed an unfamiliar route because they were running a special service to Varanasi and many had never been there before.


All change: The train was meant to go to the holy city of Varanasi, pictured, but arrived more than five hours late because of the diversion
Before the mistake was noticed the express crossed three of India's huge railway divisions.

But when they grasped what had happened the authorities brought the train back to where it should have been for its onward journey to Varanasi.

Warangal station superintendent Jaya Kumar requisitioned the nearest spare train to change the direction of the special service after almost all those on board rushed his office.

'I do not know as to who allowed the train to enter Warangal section. But once Vijayawada division cleared the signal for the special train, we allowed it to travel back,' he told The Times of India.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039667/Indian-train-travels-980km-wrong-direction-rail-staff-noticing.html#ixzz1YXKXsEqq

[mightymanx]

So this demonstrates that they are definatly not Swiss trains.

Now I can say " It's as reliable as an Indian train"

[Gaillo]

I recently watched a National Geographic special "The Great Indian Railway" - one of the most beautiful and fascinating documentaries I've ever seen! From what I saw, it looks like the rail system in India has gone HORRIBLY downhill since the British left and turned it over to the Indians... many Indians in the documentary all but admitted as much.

[Neuro]

I recently watched a National Geographic special "The Great Indian Railway" - one of the most beautiful and fascinating documentaries I've ever seen! From what I saw, it looks like the rail system in India has gone HORRIBLY downhill since the British left and turned it over to the Indians... many Indians in the documentary all but admitted as much.
Oh indeed it wen't downhill! Almost every year there is a great train catastrophy involving two trains frontal collision, and the reason is that one of them went in on the wrong track. One time in the 90's I was on a train in the third class coupé between Bombay and New Delhi, for 36 hours that was so crammed, it was impossible for me to go to the toilet people were sitting on the coathangers, on the floors everywhere, due to backflow of urine from the bladder to the kidneys, my left leg swelled up... But it was very cheap! I was cured later by a Tibetan Dr in Dharamsala, who gave me a herbal remedy that looked like a rabbit dropping... Good times! ;D

[Neuro]

BTW almost everything in India has gone downhill since the British left. Take Calcutta for instance, at the turn of last century around 1900 Calcutta was considered one of the most beautiful cities of the world, with a population of around 4-500.000. Today it has the same infrastructure, but 100 years old and not maintained, a population of 12-15 million, an absolute stinkhole, with more potholes in the roads than asphalt, and people everywhere... You can still see eroding signs of its former glory though...

[Dogman]

That is what they get for burning ganja as fuel.

[Neuro]

That is what they get for burning ganja as fuel.

It's the bang lassies man!

[gunDriller]

this helps me understand Mumbai.