(slow) Train to Ernakulam

We are familiar with strange truth (stranger than fiction). Here is an example of plain scary truth (not as scary as flying by Malaysian Airlines, but still....)

Above we have the map of (Indian Railways) South-Western Zone. The original route was along the west coast (Konkan Railway shown in green). Instead the train got diverted to Pune (top left corner in yellow zone). At that point it should have moved directly south to Miraj and from thereon turn west to reach Goa. Instead it traveled south-east (right-wards in the map) to Solapur and then on to Gulbarga, a few hundred km on the wrong track.

Not a single official noticed (the passengers eventually did). BTW Udupi is a town on the west coast near Mangalore.


Passengers of the Okha-Ernakulam express from Gujarat to Kerala were stunned when they saw that their train had reached Gulbarga station in Karnataka on Tuesday.

The train was on track till 10.30pm on Monday but passengers were alerted at Punwale that due to an accident near Ratnagiri, the train would be diverted towards Pune and then it would reach Wadgaum in Goa via Miraj. But at Pune, the train was mistakenly diverted to Solapur and then to Gulbarga.

Passengers were shocked early morning when they saw their train at Solapur station at 6am. They informed the station master at Solapur and were told the train would be diverted at Guntakal to Hubli....
..
The train reached Gulbarga at 11.30am and was parked 1km from the station and later taken to the station.

..Keerthan, a passenger on the train who was supposed to reach Udupi at 11am Tuesday, got down at Gulbarga and took a bus to reach his destination. He said almost 30 passengers in the bus he was traveling, were passengers from the mis-routed train.

.....

regards