Published Date:
21-Jul-2011
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shipping-exchangeCentral Railway played down the occurrence of the fracture. "There was no chance of an accident because of automatic signalling . When the fracture developed, the signal turned red as the circuit linking the track to the signal was disrupted," said an official.

The fracture was detected around 9.45 am and the fault was repaired by 10.15 am, said V A Malegaonkar, chief public relations officer , Central Railway. "There was no cancellation of trains."

Nevertheless, a 20-minute delay was suffered by eight services on the up line (CST-Panvel ). "No service on the route was cancelled because the frequency of harbour line trains is one in five minutes . The majority of services are routed via Wadala to Bandra and Andheri. Hence, the frequency of trains between Wadala and Mankhurd is one in 10 minutes. This gives sufficient time to technicians to carry out repairs without majorly disrupting services," said an official.

He said the station manager , Chembur, ordered a track inspection after the signal turned red. The fracture was detected about 200 m from the station . It was repaired with a fishplate.

Malegaonkar said that speculating on the reasons for the fracture was improper as many factors could have been responsible for it. A railway expert said rails can fracture because of both human error and technical or climate reasons.

The human factor, for example, pertains to ballast cleaning. Ballast wears out over time, the stones losing angularity and becoming rounded. This reduces their effectiveness in constraining the track as trains moves on it. The resultant strain on the rails can make them fracture.

Another reason for rail fracture is wear and tear due to the impact of wheels, making periodic track inspection a necessity.

Climate reasons include the expansion of rails in summer and their contraction in winter. The tension can cause a crack to develop at the weakest point in the rail. Technical reasons could be manufacturing defects and poor welding.

But since the responsibility for ensuring track quality lies with the railways , the ultimate factor is human.