Kishoreganj Express coaches roll nearly a kilometre without an engine at Bhairab: guard's emergency brake averts disaster, departure delayed two hours

The coaches of the Dhaka-bound 'Kishoreganj Express' train from Kishoreganj rolled backwards for nearly a kilometre without an engine. Panic spread among passengers as the train, standing at the platform, suddenly began moving in this way.

The incident took place on Thursday evening (29 October) at platform No. 3 of Bhairab Railway Junction. A guard then boarded the train and applied the emergency brake, bringing it to a stop.

The train had left Kishoreganj Railway Station at 4 pm bound for Dhaka. After it reached Bhairab Junction, the engine was detached so that it could be changed.

But because the line towards Kishoreganj slopes downwards, the coaches began rolling backwards as soon as the engine was detached.

Train guard Omar Ali said: 'The train reached Bhairab at 6:08 pm. The engine was detached and was supposed to come around from the outer line. But as the line is sloped, the coaches moved backwards.' He immediately boarded the train and applied the emergency brake, stopping it.

According to guard Omar Ali, passengers were somewhat panicked, but no major untoward incident took place.

A passenger on the train said: 'We left Kishoreganj at 4 pm. At Bhairab I saw the train moving backwards. At first I thought it was moving with the engine; later I saw the train was moving on its own without an engine. I, along with many others, was extremely frightened.'

Another passenger said his brother was scheduled to fly abroad that night, and there were many other overseas-bound passengers on the train. He feared many could suffer serious losses if the train did not depart on time.

Mostafizur Rahman, a passenger from Narsingdi, said: 'At Bhairab we faced a frightening situation. All the passengers are in extreme suffering. We want the government's monitoring of the railways to be increased further.'

Station Master Md Yusuf said of the incident: 'This happened because the line was down.' He added that the Kishoreganj Express was delayed by nearly two hours in departing because lines had to be given to four trains bound for Dhaka-Sylhet and Chattogram.