Several trains cancelled, rescheduled

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 27

Rail passengers remained a harried lot with several trains cancelled, rescheduled and stranded at intermediate stations due to blockade of rail tracks at several places by farmers as a part of their call for Bharat bandh today.

Four trains — 02014 Amritsar-New Delhi Shatabdi Express, 02716 Amritsar-Nanded Sachkhand Express, 03077 Dhanbad-Ferozepur Ganga Sutlej Express and Chandigarh-Firozepur Express — were stranded at the Ludhiana railway station.

Railway officials said due to the farmers’ protest seven trains were cancelled for the day, one for tomorrow, seven others were rescheduled and two trains were short-terminated.

According to information made available by the Railways, rail tracks were blocked on at least six places on the Ludhiana-Jalandhar, Ludhiana-Firozepur, Ludhiana-New Delhi and Ludhiana-Chandigarh sections due to which trains were stopped at intermediate stations.

Among the cancelled trains were Amritsar-Haridwar Janshatabdi Express, 04489/90 Amritsar-Pathankot-Amritsar Express, 04537 Amritsar-Nangal Dam Express, 02030 Amritsar-New Delhi Swarn Shatabdi Express, 04032 Moga-New Delhi Intercity Express and 04068 Amritsar-New Delhi Shane-Punjab Express. The 04078 Pathankot-New Delhi Express would remain cancelled tomorrow (Sept 28) for want of rake.

Railway officials said seven trains — 02926 Amritsar-Bandra Terminus Pashchim Express, 05734 Amritsar-Katihar Amrapali Express, 01058 Amritsar-CSMT Mumbai Dadar Express, 09222 Jammu Tawi-Ajmer Express, 02920 Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra-Dr Ambedkar Nagar Malwa Express, 04078 Pathankot-Delhi Express and 04678 Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra-Hapa Sarvodaya Express — were rescheduled to depart from their respective destinations by four to five hours. However, their actual departure would depend upon lifting of blockade by the protesting farmers.

Stranded railway passengers were furious over the farmers disrupting the rail traffic as according to them the Railways had nothing to do with the agitation. “Farmers have a grudge against the Modi government and they could carry on their protest against the Centre. But due to rail roko, thousands of passengers are being made to suffer for no fault of theirs, just because trains are a soft target and it is very easy for even a small group of protesters to block the tracks and disrupt rail traffic,” said a passenger waiting at the railway station here to board a train for Gorakhpur.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.