Delays dog trains on first weekday after Sealdah work
Times of India | 11 June 2024
Kolkata: After a three-day curb to facilitate platform upgrade that ended on Sunday, services to and from Sealdah station struggled to limp back to normal on Monday with several trains — local and long-distance — reporting delays.
Most local trains were late by an hour or 90 minutes as the bunching continued 24 hours after Phase II of the extension of platforms 1 to 5 was complete.“We read in the papers that Sunday’s Rajdhani arrived more than three hours late. Thankfully, things weren’t that bad on Monday,” said Suhrid Sarkar, a Delhi resident who came to Kolkata.
Some long-distance trains were delayed as well. “Due to the late arrival of the corresponding down train, express and mail trains, like Sealdah-Alipurduar-Kanchankanya Express, were affected,” an Eastern Railway official said. The train left Sealdah at 11.50 pm instead of 8.35 pm on Monday. The Sealdah-Gorakhpur Summer Special was scheduled at 7.40 am on Tuesday instead of 6.17 pm on Monday while the Sealdah-Jaynagar Ganga Sagar Express left Sealdah at 11.30 pm instead of 5.45 pm on Monday.
Premium trains, like Rajdhani, left on time at 4.50 pm but local train passengers had to wait longer in the morning. The situation started improving after 11 am. By late afternoon, the waiting time at the platforms had reduced considerably. “No train was cancelled on Monday and all local and mail express trains terminated at and originated at Sealdah as usual,” the ER official said.
However, the situation again worsened in the evening with hundreds stranded at Sealdah as several local trains couldn’t leave the station.
“Wish the authorities had embarked upon the work in winter instead of putting us through this torture in this weather,” said Babul Das, a daily commuter who travelled to work from Barasat on Friday.