Fog slows down rail traffic, passengers hit

LUDHIANA: With the dense fog enveloping the Northern region showing no improvement, rail traffic continues to be erratic. Travel has virtually become an ordeal for passengers as almost half of the mail and express trains passing through the city were running late by anything from four to 18 hours with many more getting delayed by up to four hours.

Passengers try to board a train at the Ludhiana railway station. Tribune photo: Himanshu Mahajan

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, December 4

With the dense fog enveloping the Northern region showing no improvement, rail traffic continues to be erratic. Travel has virtually become an ordeal for passengers as almost half of the mail and express trains passing through the city were running late by anything from four to 18 hours with many more getting delayed by up to four hours.

According to the railway authorities, 12356 Jammu Tawi-Rajedranagar (Patna) Archna Express was cancelled for the day due to the corresponding trains arriving way behind schedule.

While elite Shatabdi Express trains on New Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar trunk route were able to maintain their schedule, the pair of 12497/98 New Delhi-Amritsar-New Delhi Shane-Punjab, 12459 New Delhi-Amritsar Intercity and 14681 New Delhi-Jalandhar Intercity Express were delayed by one and half hour.

Among the trains running late by four hours or more were 12588 Jammu Tawi-Gorakhpur Amarnath Express (18.40 hrs), 18101 Tatanagar-Jammu Tawi Express (12.30 hrs), 13049 Howrah-Amritsar Express (11.15 hrs), 11057 CST (Mumbai)-Amritsar Express (8.30 hrs), 12716 Amritsar-Nanded Sachkhand Express (8.33 hrs), 12413 Ajmer-Jammu Tawi Superfast Express (8.28 hrs), 15209 Saharsa-Amritsar Jansewa Express (7.35 hrs), 18237 Bilaspur-Amritsar Chhattisgarh Express (5.57 hrs), 13005 Howrah-Amritsar Mail (5.30 hrs), 14155 Kanpur-Udhampur Express (5.35 hrs), 12237 Varanasi-Jammu Tawi Bgumpura Express (5.15 hrs), 12715 Nanded-Amritsar Sachkhand Express (5.25 hrs), 02125 Nagpur-Amritsar AC Superfast Special (5.05 hrs), 12357 Kolkata-Amritsar Durgiana Express (4.50 hrs) and 12919 Indore-Jammu Tawi Malwa Express (4 hrs).

As per information, other mail and express trains running behind schedule by an hour to three and a half hours included 01707 Jabalpur-Attari Special Express, 15210 Amritsar-Saharsa Jansewa Express, 14615 Lalkuan-Amritsar Express, 11058 Amritsar-CST (Mumbai) Express, 22424 Amritsar-Gorakhpur Jansadharan Express, 18238 Amritsar-Bilaspur Chhattisgarh Express, 12238 Jammu Tawi-Varanasi Begumpura Express, 13006 Amritsar-Howrah Mail and 18507 Vishakhapatnam-Amritsar Hirakund Express.

Harassed passengers lamented that uncertainty prevailed in the railway timetable. To add to their misery, those manning the railway enquiry counters, more often than not, did not have correct information about expected time of arrival of delayed trains. Passengers waiting at railway platforms for their respective trains also complained of overcharging by certain railway vendors who were out to take advantage of heavy rush at the railway station.

Railway officials, however, claimed that they were keeping an eye on the sale of eatable and other items to check instances of overcharging.