Thousands of rail passengers were affected on Monday after a technical snag at Beach station brought EMU movement to a standstill for nearly half-an-hour during the peak hour this morning.
Senior railway sources admitted to technical snag affecting movement for 25 minutes from 9.20am.
This particularly hit women passengers, particularly staff at the State Secretariat, as the EMUs stopped midway between Park and Fort Railway stations. The women had to be helped by their male colleagues to move out of the train midway.
Motormen of several EMUs on the Tambaram-Beach stretch managed to move the rakes to nearby stations.
Meanwhile, one of the coaches of a special train that was bringing delegates for the 87th Annual Convention of All India Railwaymen’s Federation here caught fire when the train neared the Pattabhiram Railway station on Sunday night.
Railway Police sources said no one was injured in the fire that engulfed the bogie. The entire coach was gutted.
All the delegates, including women, alighted from the train immediately. They were accommodated in other bogies and the train left for Chennai Central after a delay of two hours.
As there was no pantry car in the train, some of the delegates had brought stoves and utensils for cooking food and a spark from a stove reportedly led to the fire.