New Delhi Railway Station Stampede: Train Name Confusion May Have Triggered Chaos, Say Cops

New Delhi Railway Station Stampede: As the police of Delhi unveiled that the chaos of duplicated train names and multiple delays in the working of the railways is one of the many causes that led to the fatal stampede which met with 18 fatalities in New Delhi Railway Station.

New Delhi Railway Station stampede | As per Delhi Police, the confusion happened because of the announcement of the trains having the same initial name starting with 'Prayagraj'. The announcement of the Prayagraj Special arriving at Platform 16 led to confusion because the…

— ANI (@ANI) February 16, 2025

According to officials, an announcement made by the railways for the arrival of the Prayagraj Special at Platform No. 16 led many passengers who were supposed to board the Prayagraj Express from Platform No. 14 to rush towards Platform 16, resulting in a massive crowd surge at that platform.

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"The announcement of the Prayagraj special arriving at Platform 16 led to confusion because the Prayagraj Express was already at Platform 14. People who couldn't reach to their train at Platform 14 thought their train was arriving at Platform 16 leading to the stampede. Additionally, there were 4 trains heading to Prayagraj, out of which 3 were delayed, causing unexpected overcrowding," Delhi Police said in a statement.

Train placement during stampede

• Platform 14: Prayagraj Express(Departure: 10:10 PM)
• Platform 12: Magadh Express (Delayed)
• Platform 13: Swatantrata Senani Express (Delayed)
• Platform 15: Bhubaneswar Rajdhani (Delayed)

Passengers described absolute mayhem at the station with a sudden change of platform for a train adding to leaving everyone in panic.

“I have never seen such a massive crowd at the railway station, not even during festivals. Officials were present, but once the crowd exceeded a certain limit, it became impossible to control,” he said.

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It occurred at about 10 pm when thousands of people tried to gain entry into the trains going to Prayaj for the Maha Kumbh. The situation got aggravated due to two scheduled trains being late on that particular day and the rush for a special express service for the festival, causing a jam on several platforms.

The incident, which has been termed unfortunate by the Ministry of Railways, has set up a high-level two-member committee to probe into the causes for the accident and recommend remedial measures.

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