Rail staff in India fail to notice train running 600 miles in wrong direction

Stock photo: PA

A thousand passengers were left furious after Indian rail officials allowed a train to travel 980km in the wrong direction - leaving them five hours away from their desired location.

The train left the southern town of Tirupati heading for the eastern city of Bhubaneswar.

At the Vijayawada interchange it was due to go north to its destination of Varanasi.

But, India's signalling system is run on codes, and rail officials accidentally entered the wrong ones. Instead of tapping in BBS for its intended next stop Bhubaneswar, staff entered BSP for Bilaspur - sending the train hurtling in the wrong direction.

The train was headed for the holy city of Varanasi. Photo: PA

Although angry at the inconvenience, passengers were relieved that they somehow didn't get int the way of another train's path.

According to the Daily Mail, one said: 'Though the journey was agonising, we thank our stars that the train did not run into another train.'

After it passed through three railway divisions over 600 miles, authorities realised what had happened and brought the train back to where it should have been to successfully reach its final destination of Varanasi.

The full-to-the-brim train pulled into Warangal station, where superintendent Jaya Kumar organised a special train journey to take the displaced passengers back to the Vijayawada station - with a small amount of coercion from the 1000-strong crowd of angry passengers who landed outside his office.