Major accident averted as empty Vande Bharat travels 463 km with faulty brakes

A train accident was narrowly avoided after a 463 km journey by an empty Vande Bharat chair car rake with non-functional braking systems, despite multiple warnings from locomotive pilots. The incident, which occurred in October, has led the South Eastern Railway zone to launch an investigation into potential safety lapses that could have jeopardized railway operations.

The train, moving from Hatia in Jharkhand to Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, was being pulled by a freight locomotive. Railway staff reportedly failed to properly connect the train's braking system to the locomotive, ignoring warnings from the crew before allowing it to proceed. The loco pilot discovered extremely poor braking performance after leaving Hatia, and reported the issue upon arrival in Ranchi.

However, the train was permitted to continue. Another loco pilot operating the rake from Muri station alerted controllers that the brakes could not be engaged by reducing brake pipe pressure. It was only when the train reached Deen Dayal Upadhyaya station in Uttar Pradesh that officials inspected the rake and found that all coaches' braking systems were isolated, rendering them ineffective.

The preliminary probe concluded that negligence by coach and wagon maintenance staff, section and traction controllers, as well as the train crew, were to blame.