Fog plays havoc with travellers’ plans

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, December 22

With the weather gods remaining merciless and sun being elusive all across the region, the rail traffic seems to have gone from bad to worse and misery of travellers multiplying manifold.

While most of the long route trains are running late by several hours, some are delayed by more than eight to 10 hours, causing harassment to the passengers. The facilities in the waiting rooms and waiting area at the railway station being far too inadequate, the passengers, including women and children, are having a tough time in freezing cold weather conditions.

Both 12029 New Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi express and 12497 New Delhi-Amritsar Shane-Punjab arrived late by 1.30 hours and 1.20 hours, respectively.

As per railway officials, 12332 Jammu-Kolkata Himgiri express was running late by 10.50 hours, 12331 Kolkata-Jammu Himgiri express by 10.30 hours, 16317 Kanyakumari-Jammu Himsagar express by 9.10 hours, 15708 Amritsar-Katihar Amrapali express by 8.45 hours, 12919 Indore-Jammu Malwa express by 8.05 hours, 11077 Pune-Jammu Jhelum express by 7.33 hours, 18101 Tatanagar-Jammu Muri express by 7.30 hours, 12491 Muzaffarpur-Jammu Maurdhwaj express by 7.10 hours, 13049 Howrah-Amritsar express by 6.20 hours. 11057 Mumbai LTT-Amritsar express by 6.45 hours and 15209 Saharsa-Amritsar Jansewa express by 6 hours.

Many other trains, including 18237 Chhattisgarh express, 13005 Howrah-Amritsar Mail, 12237 Begumpura express, 12716 Sachkhand express, 15210 Jansewa express, 15708 Amrapali express, 12471 Swaraj express, 14650 Saryu-Yamuna express, 12317 Akaltakht express, 12715 Sachkhand express and 12203 Garib Rath, were also running behind schedule by two to five hours.

The railway officials have advised travellers to ascertain the running status of their respective trains before leaving for the railway station to avoid inconvenience.