Though Delhi Metro has brought about a metamorphosis in the way Delhi’s public commutes, the ride has not been all smooth. The frequency of technical snags - trains running late, unscheduled and long halts, abrupt stoppages, et al - has significantly increased.
Travellers who were initially profuse in their praise for the ‘world class’ mode of public transport are now disgruntled with deteriorating services. Tuesday’s incident highlights the bumpy ride this new age public transport system is giving.
A similar snag had hit the busy Jahangirpuri-HUDA City Centre corridor in December 2010, when a train carrying over 300 stopped in the tunnel between Patel Chowk and Central Secretariat stations due to a technical fault, blocking the line for nearly an hour.
There have also been numerous instances of disruption of services due to some technical snag. Whether it is the signalling problem, the train track system or overhead electrification system, a cascading effect leads to services being hit on the entire corridor and troubling lakhs of passengers.
Puneet Jain, a frequent commuter who was stuck inside the train on Tuesday, said the Delhi Metro service has become virtually unpredictable. “Earlier, when we wanted to reach on time, we relied on the Metro but now, we can no longer depend on it because trains stop at any point unpredictably,” he said.
Regular passengers of the Noida line complain that such technical issues are rampant in the Noida City Centre/Vaishali and Dwarka Sector 21 corridor, which winds through some of the most congested parts of the city. “There have been instances when there are no announcements regarding technical failure. Also, trains halting unnecessarily at a particular station or in between stations is quite common of late,” said Rahul Saxena, a Delhi University student.
The frequency of trains has also become an issue. “Sometimes, the train is too crowded. There have been cases of people getting stuck between closing train doors, which causes delay. At times, information display boards do not work. There is no announcement, it has gone from bad to worse,” complained Shikha Vats, a Government schoolteacher.
However, a source in Delhi Metro said such incidents have become regular because a system which was designed to handle peak hour frequency of three minutes has been pressurised to plying every 2.5 minutes. Frequency has been brought down due to overcrowding on the Gurgaon on Noida lines. This also leads to glitches and adversely affects services.