Travellers are bearing the brunt of double trouble -- a harsh summer, and a messed up train schedule. Thanks to Indian Railways (IR), many are regretting their decision to undertake train travel this season. Punctuality has gone for a toss, long-distance Mail or Express trains are running too late for the travellers to hold a sense of time.

Trains on Howrah-Mumbai route passing through Nagpur are especially late by nearly eight to 12 hours, making it quite difficult for passengers. Mostly, the trains running on IR’s Eastern corridor are getting delayed. Apart from ongoing infrastructure works that result in power blocks, the congestion on tracks due to delay in taking up expansion programmes is also contributing to the mess. Even the pace of ongoing work is quite low, said railway watchers.

While summer is at its peak, there is tremendous rush in the long-distance passenger carrying trains due to holiday season. However, for passengers, there is no respite from hardship as there is no definite information available at local level about the actual timings of trains. To make matters worse, Railways are forcing travellers to leapfrog into air conditioned coaches by reducing the number of sleeper coaches in Mails and Express trains. The decision has forced many to cram themselves into the available space in remaining sleeper coaches forcing reserved passengers to face discomfort in long distance travel.

As an instance of trains running late, a family that had booked ticket in 12649 Yeshantpur-Hazrat Nizamuddin Express were left rudderless as they missed the connecting train ex-New Delhi. The train arrived in Nagpur about five hours behind schedule and the family thought that by some miracle they might still reach in time. However, the choked network left little room for any miraculous maneuvres or speeding-up of trains which are running late. So, the family that was to catch a train from Delhi to Haridwar was left fending for itself in the capital city. Commenting on the situation, Basant Shukla, Secretary, Bharatiya Yatri Kendra (BYK), said, Indian Railways need to pull-up its socks and take steps to address the sorry state of affairs. The grandiose announcement of station makeover is, however, leaving a foul taste among travellers thanks to unresponsive railway officials who fail to provide up to date information on the running status of trains. Though Railways have invested heavily in technology, the departmentalisation within rank and file leaves travellers in the lurch day after day.

Earlier, trains originating from Howrah were quite comfortable for travellers moving towards Mumbai or Pune owing to their mid-day timings. Now, ever since infrastructure work on the route plus increase in train services, the Mail/Express are perennially running late leaving passengers fuming. An analysis would reveal that Azad Hind Express runs on an average 12 hours late on either side as due to late arrival from Howrah, the train starting ex-Pune also starts late. So now a days maximum rush is seen in Nagpur bound trains from Pune where the demand is so high that round the year all Mail/Express runs jam packed. Even the Mumbai Mail, it used to always run on time, is also hit the rough patch is late by four to five hours on daily basis. A look at the running history of trains indicates that most of those on Howrah and Patna route are behind schedule by six hours and above. Further the special train run during summer to clear the rush is a classic example of passengers being taken on a grand ride. On the Howrah route though capacity expansion work is going on at feverish speed, the ever expanding trains is adding to pressure of operations. Already the utility of tracks has reached nearly 150 per cent and despite auto signalling there is no respite from jumbling on the Eastern corridor of Railways. The problem is compounded by time bound scheduling of coal rakes as maximum goods rakes are originating from Southern Coalfields that lie on Eastern rail corridor. A chicken neck is formed at Chakradharpur due to jam of sort occurs here that in turn slow down run of long distance passenger carrying trains, said the railway officials. For overcoming the problem Railways are investing heavily in laying third and fourth line but that would take time to complete it. Till then late running of trains on the route is inevitable.