Railways issues info on maintenance work, but it fails to reach passengers

Hubballi: South Western Railway (SWR) often regulates passenger trains for its pre-scheduled technical maintenance or repair work on tracks, but never intimates such regulations at ticket counters or at stations, making passengers wait for hours at stations, or sometimes between stations, where even water is not available.
SWR issues information about pre-scheduled line blocks or train regulations through the media. But it doesn’t ensure that this reaches the passengers who travel or are about to travel on a particular train.

Sharing her recent experience of such uninformed regulation, Jayanti Bogar, a homemaker in Haveri, said she was travelling in train number 11005 Dadar-Pondicherry Express from Haveri to Harihar. “The train halted in a no-station area for over two hours. As we were in an unreserved coach, there was no staff to inform us why the train had stopped and how many more hours it would take to move further. We wasted two hours for a journey of one hour,” she explained.

She further said, “When we complained to the Railways, officials said that regulation of our train was allowed for 25 minutes due to re-girdering work on the bridge. However, our questions on why the train was stopped at a no-station area and why there was no intimation at Haveri went unanswered.”

Kishan Sankinadasar, a frequent traveller between Tumakuru and Hubballi, noted that SWR’s press releases won’t reach its target passengers. “It issues press releases in Hubballi but the trains to be regulated start from Mumbai, Delhi, even Chandigarh. How can passengers there read the Hubballi edition of newspapers and dailies. Rather than issuing releases just for the sake of formality, they should announce it at all stations where a particular train passes through. They should also display such notifications at unreserved ticket counters and stations. Railway authorities should also make arrangements to send SMS alerts to reserved passengers if the delay is going to be extended by hours,” he said.

Uttam Satiya, spokesman, Indian Travellers’ Association, said that train and station crews never show the courtesy of communicating with passengers when trains are detained for a longer time. “Probably higher officials fail to share information with the crew. But it pushes passengers into a dilemma or sometimes panic. We don’t object if the situation involves an emergency, but we just want proper communication from the railway staff or officials,” he stressed.

‘We are taking measures’

“Reserved passengers get SMS alerts if the train is delayed by more than one hour. This service is now functional for 1,104 trains. Whenever maintenance works such as track renewal are being taken up by regulating passenger/express trains, special efforts are being taken by the SWR to intimate passengers to facilitate planning and reduce inconvenience,” said E Vijaya, chief public relations officer, SWR, Hubballi. These measures include announcements on the public address system provided at adjacent and nearby important stations regarding the planned works and information being displayed in train indication boards/CCTVs at stations. Whenever these are not available, the information is prominently written on the notice board near the station manager’s office, Vijaya said, adding that at the unreserved ticket counters, staff /station manager issuing ticket are advised to inform passengers about tentative timings and press releases are being issued in advance to ensure information is disseminated with the help of media.