No end to trains’ erratic run, passengers inconvenienced

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, November 18

Several long-route trains are running behind schedule causing inconvenience to passengers.

If the Northern Railway officials are to be believed, several trains are not maintaining their time table either due to adverse weather condition or due to operational reasons.

A three-day traffic block for the execution of non-interlocking work on the Ludhiana-Ambala section from November 16 to 18, 2015, had further compounded the situation.

Railway officials said 18103 Tatanagar-Amritsar Jallianwala Bagh Express was delayed by 10.10 hours, while its corresponding train 18104 Amritsar-Tatanagar Express was late by 4.50 hrs. Other trains delayed for three hours or more were 15115 Chhapra-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (7.05 hrs), 05656 Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra-Kamakhya Tatkal Express (4.55 hrs), 12355 Rajinder Nagar (Patna)-Jammu Tawi Archna Express (4.30 hrs), 13049 Howrah-Amritsar Express (3.30 hrs) and 18101 Tatanagar-Jammu Tawi Express (3.55 hrs).

Traffic on the Ambala Cantt-Ludhiana section was affected to some extent due to a traffic block which led to the late arrival of both 12029 New Delhi-Amritsar Swarn Shatabdi (55 minutes) and 12497 New Delhi-Amritsar Shan-e-Punjab (40 minutes).

Other trains running behind schedule by anything from more than one to three hours were 15707 Katihar-Amritsar Amrapali Express (2.50 hrs), 14155 Kanpur-Udhampur Express (2.45 hrs), 15651 Guwahati-Jammu Tawi Lohit Express (2.10 hrs), 14604 Amritsar-Saharsa Weekly Jansadharan (1.50 hrs), 12920 Jamuu Tawi-Indore Malwa Express (1.30 hrs) and 12237 Varanasi-Jammu Tawi Begumpura Express (1.45 hrs).

A railway official said: “All efforts are being made to run the trains on time and avoid inconvenience to passengers. However, the passengers will have to bear with us when it comes to inclement weather or operational hiccups.”