Nagpur: Travellers are currently grappling with a double dose of trouble amidst a scorching summer and a disarrayed train schedule. Regret is creeping in for many who opted for train travel this season, as Indian Railways struggles to maintain punctuality.
According to a report in a local English daily, the schedules of long-distance Mail or Express trains have been severely disrupted, leaving passengers without a reliable sense of time. The combination of soaring temperatures and unreliable train services has created a frustrating situation for those relying on rail transportation.
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06 June 2025
According to the report, 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 the 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 trains due to the 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.
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, which used to always run on time, is also hit the rough patch and is late by four to five hours on a 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 are 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 the Eastern rail corridor.
