As Delhiites woke up to a dense fog on Friday morning, more than 24 trains, including 10 Shatabdi Express trains were cancelled and around 50 trains scheduled to arrive Delhi as well as adjoining areas of Northern Railways faced inordinate delay.
Though passengers faced a harrowing time, the Railways is prepared to battle the foggy season. Also, heavy fog disrupted flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. With the runway visibility dropping below the required limits, an IndiGo flight was diverted while many departures were put on hold, an airport official said.
In Delhi division alone, 19 trains were delayed, 11 cancelled and two were rescheduled. While Seemanchal Express was rescheduled, trains that were cancelled, include Habibganj Shatabdi, Ajmer Shatabdi, Kanpur Shatabdi, Kathgodam Shatabdi, Kota Shatabdi, Rohtak Intercity and Rajya-Rani Express.
The delay resulted in complete disorientation of time table, train berthing plans, maintenance slots at washing line complexes etc. Stations remained heavily crowded with passengers found on platforms for long intervals at major terminals. The cost of operations increased due to overtime of crew and decreased asset utilisation due to reduced speed and capacity constraints. Not just that, the delay inevitably led to crew shortage resulting out of longer duration of working hours due to slower mobility.
Therefore, with a view to manage operational bottlenecks during fog, a complete plan to create capacity and rectify abnormally late running links has been devised by reducing the frequency of trains that run on sectors badly affected by fog during their journey.
Total number of full cancellation of trains has been reduced from 6\54 trains ( 27 pairs) as done last year to 30 trains (15 pairs ). Unlike previous year, no Shatabdi or Rajdhani trains have been fully cancelled.
Other than this, frequency of weekly, bi-weekly, tri-weekly, and 36 pairs daily popular trains have been left intact and unchanged. Frequency of only those trains that run daily or up to four days a week have been reduced by 1 to 3 trips a week so that services remain available on fog affected sector on any given day.
Besides, frequency of Rajdhani trains has been reduced by only 1 trip a week. Week end trips of important trains have not been cancelled to the extent feasible. Trains running with less than 24 coaches on the fog affected sections to maximize the clearance of passengers of that section.