Suburban AC train scrapes platforms, staff ‘hammer' back rakes
Chennai:
Southern Railway
's much-hyped air-conditioned suburban train, introduced with fanfare as a symbol of modern urban transit, came to an embarrassing halt on Sunday after its rakes began scraping against station platforms along the Tambaram–Beach line.
The incident, caught on video by commuters, exposed not only a technical flaw in design but also the railways' crude on-ground response.
Videos showed railway workers crouching below the train with no power tools, using handheld hammers to strike the bottom edge of compartments that were grinding against platform edges.
In each instance, after hammering a compartment's lower panel, workers used their mobile phones to record whether the rake could pass smoothly — essentially disfiguring the train.
There was no official explanation from the Southern Railway on why it deployed a trainset that physically couldn't fit within its platforms.
However, railway sources, on condition of anonymity, said that the issue could stem from marginal miscalculations in rake width or floor height that fail to account for older platform curvature or protrusions—especially at stations with legacy alignments.
"If railways couldn't even test rake-platform compatibility before launch, what does that say about safety," asked Madipakkam resident Vignesh.
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Chennai's new AC EMU already came under scrutiny in April when its schedule alienated a majority of office-goers, particularly in the evening hours.
After more than 600 negative feedback submissions, Southern Railway revised timings from May 2—advancing Train No. 49004's arrival and altering evening services.
The rake was launched on April 19, after criticism of keeping the rake idle for tests and waiting for a VIP schedule to inaugurate it.
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