Ants eat up brake cables of suburban Mumbai train

Mumbai: Swarms of red ants chewed up the rubber insulator of brake cables of a Central Railway (CR) suburban train causing brake failure but rail authorities say there was no danger as there were two other backup brakes.

On Tuesday, when the Kalyan to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) local train had crossed Matunga station, the motorman saw a message flashing on the dashboard panel signalling that the electro-pneumatic brakes of the train was not functioning. “But there were two other backup brakes and therefore there was no danger to the train,” said Narendra Patil, chief public relations officer, CR.

The electro-pneumatic brake is the primary one inside the rake and when it did not work, the motorman had to shift to the secondary brakes.

“The motorman did not panic and instead brought the train normally to CST,” said Patil. He said there are three different brakes in the train and if one does not function or fails, the other two are relied upon besides the automatic braking system on tracks.

When the brakes were inspected, it came to light that the invasion by the ants had caused the brake failure.

“We do pest control regularly and such incidents of ants breeding in the brake system hardly ever happen.”

Every train undergoes pest control during the overhauling every 18 months but the incident has raised several questions about the quality of maintenance. Suburban trains are the lifeline of Mumbai and are used by millions of commuters for whom trains are the quickest mode of transport to their places of work and back home. Travel by trains also helps in avoiding air pollution common on congested roads. Even minor delays in running of trains lead to considerable inconvenience to travellers.