LAHORE: A fault on the track led to derailment of the locomotive and a coach of Allama Iqbal Express near the Shahdara Railway Station on Tuesday.

A couple of passengers got bruises in the accident and it not only led to suspension of rail traffic between Lahore and Rawalpindi for about three hours but also disturbed road traffic for quite some time.

The Sialkot-bound Allama Iqbal Express left Lahore station at its scheduled time of 11:50am and had hardly passed the Shahdara station when its locomotive started derailing.

The driver acted swiftly and applied emergency brakes which evaded any big accident and only one passenger coach derailed.

The distance between Lahore and Shahdara is not more than 10 to 12 minutes but a relief train took one-and-a-half hours to reach the spot as railway authorities were busy with their minister, Khwaja Saad Rafique, and the members of the Senate Standing Committee on Railways.

The relief train took about an hour to clear the track and the rail traffic was restored at around 3pm. The railways authorities had also closed the manned level crossing after the accident which resulted in traffic congestion up that could not be cleared till late in the evening.

A railways officer, who inspected the accident site, told Dawn it seemed the point machine had burst which disturbed the track and led to derailment of the locomotive and a coach.

“A point machine moves rail track or operates railway turnouts from a distance. It usually bursts when it is loose. There are reports that the point machine had been problematic,” said the officer while seeking anonymity.

The train was running at a slow speed when it passed Shahdara station. “There are speed restrictions at certain blocks on the Shahdara-Rawalpindi route. Trains are not allowed to run more than 20 kilometers per hour from Shahdara to Narang Mandi, Narowal to Sialkot etc.,” said the officer.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2016