No end to passengers’ woes as trains remain off track due to farmers’ protest

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, December 9

There seems to be no end to misery of rail passengers from the region intending to travel to other states for personal or business purposes as only a handful of trains were being operated by the railway authorities that too in an erratic manner owing to a group of agitating farmers still obstructing rail tracks at a few places.

Frequent travellers from the city and other places complain that at present, no trains were available from Ludhiana towards New Delhi, Howrah/Kolkata, Mumbai/Bandra terminus, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. If one or two long distance trains were being operated by the railways, those were being short-terminated at Ambala Cantt, Saharanpur or New Delhi and these trains were not touching Ludhiana or other destinations on the Ludhiana-Amritsar section.

Major trains that were not in operation ever since the Covid-induced lockdown included two pairs of New Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar Shatabdi Express, one pair each of New Delhi-Amritsar Shane-Punjab, Amritsar-New Delhi, Jalandhar City-New Delhi Intercity Express, two pairs of Howrah-Amritsar Mail and Express, one pair of Amritsar-Haridwar Janshatabdi Express, one pair of New Delhi-Lohian Khas Sarbat Da Bhala and one pair of Bandra Terminus-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Swaraj Express.

Meanwhile, the Northern Railway have announced that 05211/12 Dibrugarh-Amritsar-Dibrugarh Express would remain cancelled on Dec 10 and 11.

Trains to be short-terminated and short-originated from: Chandigarh - 02925/26 Bandra Terminus-Amritsar-Bandra Terminus Pashchim Express (till Dec 11). Ambala Cantt - 08237/38 Korba-Amritsar-Korba Chhattisgarh Express (till Dec 11); 02407/08 Newjalpaigguri-Amritsar-Newjalpaiguri Express (till Dec 11).

Saharanpur - 04653/54 Newjalpaiguri-Amritsar-Newjalpaiguri Express (till Dec 11).

Diversion of trains

02903/04 Mumbai Central-Amritsar-Mumbai Central Golden Templs Mail, 04649/50 Jaynagar-Amritsar-Jaynagar Saryua Yamuna Express, 04673/74 Jaynagar-Amritsar-Jaynagar Shaheed Express trains would continue to be diverted via alternate route of Beas, Tarn Taran.