Passengers bound to any station in the east or north from Chennai are put to hardship on a daily basis due to the delay in arrival of the pairing train. Many passengers who are to reach Lucknow, New Delhi, Howrah, and Bhubaneswar are facing hassles at the Chennai Central Station.
Chennai-Howrah Express, which leaves Chennai Central at 7.30 pm, has been rescheduled for the past four days continuously. The rescheduling is mostly by 3 to 5 hours. At times, the train started early in the morning as the pairing train came very late. On Monday, the Howrah Mail was scheduled to depart at 7.30 pm but was rescheduled to 4 am on Tuesday. Similarly, trains from Chennai to Delhi and other places are also rescheduled.
“The arrival of the pairing train keeps getting delayed. The rake has to be cleaned and readied for the upward journey from Chennai. This causes further delays,” said a senior Southern Railway official.
Most of the passengers arrive in advance but have to stay either on the platform or on the station premises for not less than 4 to 5 hours.
Many passengers said that no cleaning is done and the train which comes from Howrah or other places from the north, leaves the station in half an hour. “Imagine what cleaning can be done in 30 minutes. We have given up on cleanliness. The pairing trains come very late and the railway authorities are trying to hide the number of hours of delay and blame cleaning of the rakes,” said Ahmed, a passenger from Chennai to Howrah.
People use the trains from Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, and other places to reach Chennai to meet doctors in various hospitals.
“The Coromandel Express is in recent times called the Ambulance Express as many patients and relatives come by this train to Chennai. The patients are taken to Apollo Hospitals, Cancer Institute, and other hospitals for treatment. The train delays affect all passengers, especially patients,” said M Ahmed, a native of Agartala.
Chennai Central also happens to be an enroute station and many from Bengaluru or other cities reach here to take a train to West Bengal or Odisha. “I arrived from Bengaluru on Monday morning and was to take the Howrah Mail at 7.30 am. But the upward train was rescheduled to 4 am and all my travel plans are delayed,” said an IT engineer from Bengaluru who was on his way to Agartala.
Most of these trains cross multiple railway zones and no responsibility is fixed on any official from any zone. There is no railway passenger association in Chennai to take up such issues with authorities and therefore there is no solution for trains to run on time. It is for the Railways to find an answer.
Comments
0 comment