Train services resume on Kalka-Shimla line, speed reduced

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Shimla: On Saturday, after a charted toy train carrying a group of 37 foreigners derailed on the Kalka-Shimla railway line, all traffic was suspended on the railroad. However, now the train services have been resumed.

For lessening the possibility of such accidents in future, the speed of the trains on this section has been reduced.

As the train derailed near Kalka in Haryana, the traffic on the world heritage rail line was majorly disrupted on Saturday. Inspector General of Police (Railway) Zahur Zaidi informed over phone that two Britons, identified as women named Loraine Toner and Joan Nickolas, both aged 60, were killed and seven injured in this accident.

The injured were admitted to Max Super Specialty Hospital in Punjab's Mohali town near Chandigarh, some 30 km from the accident spot.

One of the survivors told police that over-speeding at a curve was the cause of the accident.

"Traffic on the Kalka-Shimla track was restored last night (Saturday). As a precaution, the speed of the trains on this section has been reduced. So the to-and-fro trains between Kalka and Shimla will take more than one-and-half hours to cover the distance," an official at the Shimla railway station told IANS.

He further added that all trains plying between Kalka in Haryana and the Himachal Pradesh capital are running on schedule.

Five trains run to and from daily on the world heritage Kalka-Shimla rail line. Normally a train takes five hours to complete the journey between Kalka and Shimla.

The Kalka-Shimla rail track was built by the British in 1903 to ferry Europeans to and from this hill town, the erstwhile summer capital of British India. It was chosen by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 2008.

(With inputs from IANS)