Passengers suffer as trains fail to run on time

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, January 7

With no let-up in weather condition and visibility remaining poor due to fog in the region, many long-route trains continue to run behind schedule causing immense inconvenience to the travelling public.

Huge rush of passengers continue to wait at the platforms to board their respective trains with lack of accurate information on late running of trains further compounding the situation.

According to railway officials, the 12358 Amritsar-Kolkata Durgiana Superfast Express was late by 6.07 hours, the 15210 Amritsar-Saharsa Jansewa unreserved train by 5.06 hours, the 12413 Ajmer-Amritsar Puja Express by 5.56 hours, the 54601 Hisar-Amritsar passenger by 2.50 hours, the 12919 Indore-Jammu Tawi Malwa Express by 2.13 hours and the 54053 Jakhal-Ludhiana passenger by 2 hours.

Several other mail, express and passenger trains, including the 12242 Amritsar-Chandigarh Intercity Express, the 12716 Amritsar-Nanded Sachkhand Express, the 19613 Ajmer-Amritsar Express, the 12460 Amritsar-New Delhi Intercity Express, the 15707 Katihar-Amritsar Amrapali Express, the 15209 Saharsa-Amritsar Jansewa, the 12497 New Delhi-Amritsar Shan-e-Punjab, the 15708 Amritsar-Katihar Amrapali Express, the 12459 New Delhi-Amritsar Intercity Express, the 64552 Amritsar-Ludhiana MEMU and the 18215 Durg-Jammu Tawi Superfast were also running behind schedule by one to two hours.

As if persistently erratic run of most of the long-route trains was not enough, almost all these trains were overcrowded due to winter rush. Almost all trains bound for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and North-Eastern states were carrying a long waiting list to the extent that there was “no room” (waiting list also exhausted) situation in many trains.

While railway officials said they had taken up the matter with the higher authorities to run some special trains and enhance carrying capacity of overcrowded trains, a section of unscrupulous railway employees in connivance with certain booking agents (read touts) were fleecing passengers by providing confirmed tickets from tatkal or general category at a high premium.