Title - Power failure hits train services, chaos in Delhi Metro

Train services were disrupted in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh due to collapse of the northern grid on Monday morning, leaving a large number of passengers stranded.A number of passenger trains bound for Delhi and beyond, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jammu, Ferozepur and Kalka were stranded at way side stations due to failure of electricity, a senior railway official said in Chandigarh.He said efforts were on to move the passenger trains with diesel engines after detaching them from running goods trains which would remain halted at way side railway stations.The stations where passenger trains were stranded include Ambala, Kurukshetra, Phillaur, Sirhind, Ludhiana, Phagwara and Karnal.Some trains were stranded mid way as the electric engines hauling them came to a halt due to failure of power at about 2.30 am.Kalka Chandigarh Delhi Shatabdi Express left the local station 90 minutes behind scheduled departure of 6.53 AM after a diesel engine was attached to it.The trains affected include Amritsar Delhi Shatabdi Express, Allahabad Chandigarh Unchahaar, Lucknow Chandigarh Sadbhavna, Howraha Kalka Mail, Delhi Jammu Mail and a number of other super fast, express, passenger and local trains. The official said that the signal system had also blanked at a number of places due to the power failure.Meanwhile, in the national capital, thousands of commuters faced severe hardship when the Delhi Metro schedule went haywire.Train services on all six corridors were affected since morning and the Metro was able to run trains only from 7 am, an hour later than the usual time of 6 am.When the services began at 7 am, only 25 per cent of trains were put on all six corridors affecting commuters.However, by 9 am, the Delhi Metro said 100 per cent services have resumed on all lines.Delhi Metro officials said the disruption in services was due to a failure in the Northern Grid which supplies power to it.As majority of the trains were taken off services in the morning due to power failure, the frequency of trains dropped to an all-time low of 20 minutes on a few corridors, leaving people stranded at several Metro stations.Sources said though the failure in the Northern Grid is expected to be rectified only in the evening, Delhi Metro was getting hydel power from Bhutan on priority basis along with power from AIIMS and Prime Minister's House to run the services.As services were not available in the morning, people were forced to take over-crowded buses and auto rickshaws.Passengers alleged that there were no proper announcements about the power failure at Metro stations.The disruption in services caught thousands of office-goers unaware.Usha, a software engineer, said she waited for more than 30 minutes at Rithala Metro Station to board a Metro train."First I heard that trains will not run. However, I managed to get a train. But the train was slow and it took more than an hour for me to reach Kashmere Gate Station," she said.