LAHORE: An initial onsite inspection-cum-probe has held the station master (SM) of the Feroza Railway Station responsible for the accident of the Yousafwala coal train, causing loss of millions to the Pakistan Railways due to the damage to the rolling stock and a stretch of the up-track.

According to a joint certificate — a term used by the railways for an initial on-site inspection and investigation, as many as five officials of the Samasatta Railway Station reached the Feroza station after the derailment of the Up Yousafwala (YSW) coal train. The train had departed from the station before reaching Feroza at 12pm. It said that on duty SM Amir Ali arranged reception of the train without knowing the position of points, which were already set for the loopline. He also downed the departure signal. The driver of the train contacted the SM, telling him that the approaching signals were yellow and he remembered the position of points and asked the driver to control the train when it reached the outer signals. He also told the driver that the reception signals had been set for the loopline and not for the mainline.

It said that the train had already entered the line leading to the line closed with the sand-hump. Thus, it said, the train hit the sand-hump finally and the engine and 10 wagons derailed as well as going off the track and damaging the main line.

“We, the undersigned, concluded that the derailment took place due to the negligence of the station master on duty at Feroza station,” the report, signed by the officials concluded. However, the report didn’t mention any effort by the driver and his assistant to stop the train by applying emergency brakes or the condition of the brake system and number of the dummy wagons (the wagons having weak or no brakes) in the train’s rake.

According to an official source, though it seems to be the fault of the station master, the officials who signed the joint certificate should have also checked what the driver did to stop the train. “I think the driver applied the emergency brakes that couldn’t work properly due to availability of some dummy wagons in the rake, which led to a collision with the sand-hump and causing such a horrible derailment,” the official explained while talking to Dawn on Friday. “This will be discussed in the detailed inquiry that will be launched in the coming days,” he added.

On the other hand, the rail traffic on the up-track was restored on Thursday after railway engineering teams completed the repair work. To a question, a railways official said that a three-member fact finding committee had been constituted to complete the inquiry within 14 days. The PR Chief Executive Officer was not available for comments.

(Irfanul Haq from Rahim Yar Khan also contributed to this report)

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2026