Train delay? It could be due to rodents

The tongue rail determines the direction of a train,and can be seen at cross-over points where trains switch tracks.

In majority of the cases,point failure is due to the ballast (stones) coming in between of tracks. “But plastic bottles and rodents too are sizeable in number of reasons that have led to the point failure cases. Even snakes too have led to many point failures,” said a senior railway officer.

Signal failure is also another reason for point failure,he added.

In about 27 cases of point failures,rodents had got stuck between the tracks. “The Central Railway (CR) too has cases of point failures due to rodents,but the number is less,” said Central Railway’s chief spokesperson Shriniwas Mudgerikar.

When a point fails,the signal doesn’t permit the train to go further. This leads to bunching or diversion of trains and in turns delays the services.

“Usually when cases of point failures happen due to ballast or plastic bottles,it takes less than five minutes to clear the point. But when a rodent gets stuck,one has to remove it and then clean the track as it is crushed. If not cleaned,then it might lead to another failure. It is then that the point is set,” said chief spokesperson for Western Railway Shyam Sunder Gupta.

The track cleaning usually takes some 10-12 minutes,which increases the delay in the trains.