Reaching rly station in evening becomes race against time

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New Delhi, February 5

Reaching the New Delhi Railway Station in peak hours remains a Herculean task for the evening Shatabdi travellers.

‘Reaching 2 hrs early for Chd Shatabadi’

A large number of passengers preferred to start early to beat the traffic and reach the platform by 5 pm, which is more than two hours in advance of the evening Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabadi departure time of 7.45 pm.

A day after former DGP of Uttar Pradesh Prakash Singh flagged his woes on the issue on social media, a fact check by The Tribune revealed that passengers of the premium train prefer to start from home at least three hours in advance to reach in time to catch the train.

Taking on X, he tagged the Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and said, “Had to catch Kalka Shatabdi today evening for going to Chandigarh. Road on Paharganj side was jammed. Got down from car and walked 200 meters with my luggage so as not to miss the train. What kind of access we have to the most important railway station of the capital? @RailMinIndia”

The Tribune spoke to at least three travellers today who said they prefered to start early to beat the traffic and reach the platform by 5 pm, which is more than two hours in advance of the evening Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabadi departure time of 7.45 pm.

Shashi, a resident of Saket, said, “I have reached here at 5.15 pm and I began at 3 pm. I am way ahead of the departure time because of the time it takes to reach the railway station. Keeping in view the traffic, I have to always begin early, it takes more time to reach the railway station than to reach Chandigarh.”

Another traveller Lajwanti Jha, hailing from Bihar, said she also began her journey from Chanakyapuri early so as to not get stuck in the traffic jam. She said, “Due to the uncertainty, I began early, I did not find traffic congestion today, but in order to not face those circumstances, I started early as a precaution. I can wait for two hours rather than missing the train.”

Sushma, who was travelling to Varanasi, said that she reached 1.5 hours earlier to avoid traffic.