When the Railway Ministry is all set to have Bullet trains on track, timing in the other routes are just going back to pre-Emergency period of 1975 when trains were running late by almost 12 to 24 hours much to the irritation of the common people and the passengers. And passengers in 2017 are now facing situation beyond the tolerance limit.
Arrival of the Darbhanga-Secunderabad Express (train No 07008) in Jharsuguda station on Wednesday making 11 hours late is just a tip of the iceberg since most of the trains all over the country are now running late. “This is what our country and the railway in particular is progressing,” commented Tapas Kumar Raychoudhury, a senior advocate of Jharsuguda.
Raychoudhury further informed that not only the passengers but also their friends and relatives coming to receive them were facing utter problems in the stations for 11 hours long since the inquiry numbers were not functioning properly and all the people are not capable of accessing to the net, commented Raychoudhury.
The fate of most other trains is also no better. “Just sit in any railway station for half an hour. You will only hear the railway people apologizing for late arrival of trains,” opined many passengers.
“I was travelling from Sambalpur to Cuttack on October 5. That day the Tapaswini Express was running late by four hours and the Durg Puri Intercity Express by one and a half hours. Situation was also the same for all other trains. Really, timing of trains has gone to dogs,” said scribe Arun Kumar Panda. The Railways needs an urgent step to maintain timing, he suggested.