Dense fog hampers movement of trains

PATNA: Foggy weather conditions compelled the railways to cancel five pairs of express trains on Wednesday and reschedule the departure of several passenger trains from the Patna Junction under the Danapur division of the East Central Railway (ECR).
The Patna-New Delhi Magadh Express (12401) was cancelled from Patna end on Wednesday. The Magadh Express, which was to run on Tuesday, was rescheduled from the Patna Junction at 7pm on Wednesday. The Patna-Kota Express (13239) was rescheduled at 5pm from the Patna Junction while the Patna-Jaynagar Intercity Express (15550) was rescheduled at 9pm on Wednesday, sources said.

The New Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express (12310) was running 23 hours behind schedule on Wednesday while the New Delhi-Patna Sampoorna Kranti Express (12394) was delayed by seven hours due to dense fog. The railways cancelled the Patna-New Delhi Rajdhani Express on Tuesday due to abnormal late running of the premier train from New Delhi, sources said.

Important mail and express trains running abnormally late due to bad weather conditions include the Brahamputra Mail (21 hours), New Delhi-Bhagalpur Garib Rath (11 hours), Seemanchal Express (5 hours), Magadh Express (15 hours), Toofan Express (11 hours), New Delhi-Jaynagar Garib Rath (10 hours), New Delhi-Vikramshila Express (11 hours), Himgiri Express (8 hours) and Amritsar Mail (7 hours).

During the last one week, the railways refunded tickets worth several lakhs from the Patna Junction, Rajendra Nagar Terminal and Danapur station due to cancellation of trains. Those, who had booked online tickets, got automatic refunds in their accounts, but those who had purchased tickets from the passenger reservation ticket booking counters, had to stand in long queues.

A large number of passengers are worried that they may not get confirmed berths in any Delhi-bound train from the Patna Junction in the next few days as most trains are getting cancelled.