Shimla, July 5: A major hill slip along the historic Kalka-Shimla rail passage disrupted train schedules on Friday afternoon, trapping a passenger locomotive between the Kathlighat and Kano stations. The Shivalik Deluxe Express, moving toward its destination with more than one hundred passengers on board, was forced to cease its forward journey immediately after debris covered the tracks. Station managers ordered the locomotive to retreat to the nearest secure platform at Kathlighat to facilitate an organized evacuation.
To clear the bottleneck, transport coordinators utilized a fleet of three highway buses to ferry the stranded travelers to Kalka. The emergency road convoy departed the hill station later that evening, ensuring that nearly all passengers were safely relocated despite the initial transit halt. To prevent passengers from missing their subsequent connections, regional operations managers ordered a temporary freeze on outgoing long-distance departures from the Kalka terminus.
“The departure of Kalka-Howrah Mail had to be delayed by one hour to accommodate stranded passengers,” Northern Railway Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Yashanjeet Singh affirmed. He asserted that tactical schedule changes were required to maintain operational continuity across the division. “The train departed at around 12:30 am on July 5.”
Repair crews arrived at the landslide zone shortly after the incident to assess the structural integrity of the narrow-gauge infrastructure. Administrative coordinators declared that specialized clearing equipment is being used to systematically remove the fallen rocks and soil from the tracks. Normal timetables for the mountain toy trains will remain suspended until safety personnel declare the route entirely clear of overhead hazards.
