If you are travelling in a long-distance train and decide to store your luggage, be careful to keep it away from a red handle as it may bring the train to a halt. The Central Railway has witnessed a 34 per cent increase in the number of inadvertent chain pulling (ACPs) in long-distance trains leaving from Mumbai. The unnecessary chain-pullings have led to a 42 per cent increase in the number of train delays.
Central Railway's Mumbai Division Police had undertaken a study between April 2019 and January 2020 which revealed that one of the reasons for delay in train timings was passengers hanging their luggage on these handles.
The study stated that 1,658 trains ran behind their scheduled timings between April 2018 and January 2019 which rose to 2,357 in the corresponding tenure in the next year.
A railway official told Mumbai Mirror that there have been instances where a sleeping passenger's foot has touched the handle, causing the train to halt. He further added that the police's analysis indicated that the passengers kept their lighter bags consisting of either food or water bottles on these alarm chains.
The number of ACPs reported between April 2018 and January 2019 were 1,068 which rose to 1,434 the following year.
According to the official, there had been 56 such cases in the last 10 months where the passengers accidentally set off the alarm by placing their luggage on the handle. On the other hand, 106 ACPs were recorded in the same period due to passenger negligence.
Majority of the cases were recorded in the Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches that are gradually replacing the convential ones. While the new ones have handles to set off the alarms, the convential coaches have pully-like alarm chains.
The highest number of such cases occurred at Kalyan railway station (328 cases) followed by Thane (154 cases). The problem is greater than one thinks since these trains have a scheduled halt of barely a few minutes and such delays disrupt the entire schedule.
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