Passengers suffer as train running late for 20 days

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, October 13

Daily commuters on the Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) on the Pathankot-Mukerian-Hoshiarpur-Jalandhar section are at the receiving end for the past 20 days as the DMU which leaves Pathankot at 5.30 am is running late by 30 to 40 minutes. Moreover, the train is also taking unexpected halts at different stations for as long as two or more hours.

As a result, passengers on the route are suffering a lot of inconvenience due to the delay and are forced to make alternative travel arrangements at the eleventh hour. The delay in the train has badly affected the job schedule of many daily passengers as they have not been able to make to their offices in time.

Infuriated passengers, who come to know about the delay in the train on their arrival at the railway station, criticised the Railways authorities for their ignorance towards public convenience, leaving them to fend for themselves. Many of them were sore at the failure of the Railways officials to lend any assistance to them to travel in alternative trains to their destinations.

Meanwhile, passengers also complained that no announcements regarding the delay or about the destination till which train would travel were being made. “For the past 10 days, the train stops at the Dasuya railway station for more than two hours and we are asked to take bus or other mode of transport. No announcement that the train will take a pause at Dasuya citing operational or any other reason is being made so that we take tickets up to Dasuya only,” said one of the daily passengers.

Railways officials from the Ferozepur division said as the maintenance work at Khudda Korala and Tanda was in progress, it might take another 90 days to solve the problem. “We are bound to halt the Pathankot-Jalandhar DMU as other trains are of long route and we cannot halt their services as it will disturb the entire rail traffic,” they added.

Another passenger Mandeep Singh, a resident of Pathankot, who works in one of the organisations here, said, “There seems to be no respite for rail passengers who are suffering due to the erratic run of trains for the past few months for one or the other reason. Why only the DMU is being stopped, while other trains had been passing smoothly? Many employees had been asked for resignation, many labourers are suffering and even women travellers face problems, changing trains than buses to reach their destinations.”

Station Superintendent RK Behl said, “The decision to halt or delay the trains lies in the hands of the division. Some operational work must be going on to which the train has been reaching the city railway station late. The public is facing problem we agree, but the operational works has been done on a priority basis.”

Notably, the ticket of the Pathankot-Jalandhar DMU from Pathankot to Jalandhar City is Rs 25. The passengers by availing bus for the route are spending four times extra charges as the bus ticket from Pathankot to Jalandhar is Rs 140. Even if the passengers avail bus half the way from Dasuya, they pay Rs 70 which is double the cost of the train ticket from Dasuya to Jalandhar.