Six weeks of ‘rail roko’ that farmers’ groups started in the last week of September has caused a great deal of inconvenience to passengers, particularly in the festive season, as most of the 300-plus passenger, mail, express and Rajdhani trains in the railways’ Ferozepur Division have either been terminated or cancelled.
Even after farmers clearing all 21 locations where they had been protesting, the deadlock continues between the farm groups and railways with the former saying that they would allow only goods trains to ply and the latter insisting that terms can’t be dictated and passenger trains, too, should be permitted. Passenger train services were completely withdrawn in the state from October 1, though the partial effect had started showing from September 24. Since then, the Ferozepur Division has refunded tickets to the tune of Rs 1.2 crore. Most of the trains in the division have been short terminated at Ambala in Haryana. “Every second day, some or the other delegation approaches us for the resumption of passenger as well as goods trains but nothing is in our hands. We are prepared to resume services at any given time but only after receiving a nod from Delhi,” said a source in Northern Railway.
According to an estimate, zero movement of passenger trains has upended the plans of nearly 20,000 passengers travelling to or from Punjab on a daily basis. The inward and outward movement of passengers is peaks at this time of the year in Punjab, with migrants travelling to their native places for the festive season.
With trains running only till Ambala, the cost of journey has increased manifold for long-distance travellers.
Hailing from Bihar, four migrant workers, who had come to Barnala railway station on Monday to inquire about the possibility of booking tickets for travel from Ambala to Bihar, said, “Earlier, Covid affected our plans and now due to farm protests, trains have come to a halt. We had to return after harvesting paddy but are unable to do so. We have now booked a train from Ambala and will be going to Ambala by road and spend more money”.