HYDERABAD:
South Central Railway (SCR) has started running special trains for summer from the city to various parts of the state and country like every year. As of now, the railways have announced around 156 trains till July. However, people are sceptical about the punctuality of the special services to an extent that they are opting flights to trains while planning their vacations.
With several trains having been terminated and rescheduled in the recent past due to operational reasons, mostly late running of pairing trains, many people, who have planned trips to places such as Guwahati, Raxaul, Jaipur and Vijayawada, among others, are actually paying more and going for flights. Srinivas Rao, a businessman, told TOI, "My family has had a bitter experience about train journey. Trains always run behind schedule. So, this time, we have decided to take a flight for our tour to Guwahati. If the special trains are not punctual, they are of no help to people." Last Monday (April 30), many passengers were left in the lurch after four trains - Yesvantpur-Gorakhpur Express, Chennai Central-Santragachi Weekly, Jabalpur-Secunderabad summer special and Mumbai CST to
Chennai Central Express - were rescheduled to the next day. "If special trains are also not spared from being rescheduled, we are not taking any risk to be inconvenienced this time. We booked air tickets for Jaipur though we had to shell out nearly 2,500 more per person than AC II tier of a summer special train," said Hussain Pasa, a Nampally resident.
Also, some people are preferring bus services to go on short trips to neighbouring
Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. "Though bus journey is tedious compared to train, I can reach my destination faster," said A Theja, a resident of Vizag who lives in the city.
Railway sources said that SCR GM Vinod Kumar Yadav had held a conference with the heads of six railway divisions to offer a solution.
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