Abdul Qadir, a resident of Hyderabad, found himself in a distressing situation while at Bhopal’s Rani Kamalapati railway station during a journey to Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli with his wife and son. Urgently needing to use a restroom and unable to locate one nearby, he boarded the Indore-bound Vande Bharat train that had just stopped at the station.
However, as fate would have it, when Qadir stepped out of the train’s washroom, he realized that the doors had been locked, and the train was already in motion, departing from the platform. Stranded inside the moving train, he sought help from police officers and ticket collectors onboard but was informed that only the driver could unlock the doors. Despite his attempts to reach the driver, he was unable to do so.
As a consequence of boarding the train without a valid ticket, Qadir was slapped with a fine of ₹1,020. Upon reaching Ujjain, he paid an additional ₹750 for a bus ticket back to Bhopal to reunite with his worried family.
Tragically, his family decided not to use the tickets worth ₹4,000 that they had reserved for their Singrauli trip, resulting in a total loss of nearly ₹6,000 due to this unfortunate incident involving the use of the Vande Bharat train’s restroom.
Qadir raised concerns about the lack of an emergency system on semi-high speed trains, believing that the incident exposed flaws in the train’s emergency protocols. However, Subedar Singh, the PRO of the Bhopal Railway Division, clarified that announcements are made before the Vande Bharat train’s departure, indicating the direction in which the doors will open and that they will be locked for safety reasons. These measures are implemented to prevent accidents and ensure passenger well-being.
Singh further added that the Vande Bharat train can only be stopped upon receiving orders from higher authorities. The incident has brought attention to the importance of adhering to train protocols and the need for clear communication to avoid such unfortunate situations in the future.
Sources By Agencies
