The Railways Ministry recently announced that it will soon slash the running time of over 500 long distance trains by up to two hours. The new Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier proposed to increase the speed of about 700 trains from 1 November.

A reality check of the prevailing scene however reveals a different situation existing on the ground now.

A large number of trains, including major ones, have been rescheduled, delayed massively or even cancelled across the country over the last few weeks, subjecting their passengers to hours of agony and hardship.This has happened to trains like Duronto and Garib Rath. Similarly, other major trains like Humsafar Express, Mahamana Express and Antyodaya Express, which have been launched during the last three years, have also been reeling under this malaise of delay and resheduling.

A major percentage of the trains that have been cancelled or rescheduled in recent days include Passenger trains, Mail Express and Superfast trains, inflicting harrowing times and misery on their passengers.

On 25 October, out of the 127 trains that got rescheduled, 40 were Passenger trains and 35 were Mail Express trains. Similarly, of the 154 trains that got delayed due to rescheduling on 26 October, 48 were Mail Express, 26 were Superfast and 45 were Passenger trains.

Duronto has been among the premium trains which had similarly got delayed or cancelled.

On 26 October, three Duronto trains had been rescheduled. One running between New Delhi and Bubhaneswar got delayed by 1.30 hours. Another running between Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Howrah got delayed due to rescheduling by 4.25 hours. Yet another Duronto on the same day between New Delhi and Sealdah got rescheduled and delayed by 3 hours.

Garib Rath, a train used mainly by those in the middle income bracket, have also been repeatedly rescheduled, cancelled or delayed. A Garib Rath between Bhagalpur and Anand Vihar got delayed due to rescheduling by 26 hours on 24 October. Similarly, a Garib Rath between Saharsa and Amritsar on 26 October was delayed due to rescheduling by 5 hours.

Over 100 trains have been cancelled everyday for the past one month, which include
many Passenger trains, Mail Express and even Superfast trains.

A Garib Rath train between Bhagalpur and Anand Vihar got cancelled on 26 October. On the same day, 71 Passenger trains had been cancelled. On 25 October, 69 Passenger trains were cancelled.

According to Railways officials, the punctuality of trains has been affected by about 15 per cent as the track renewal and maintenance work has been continuing on a large scale across the country for the past one month.

The Railways Ministry would soon change the timings of all major trains to account for the traffic blocks and speed restrictions being imposed on some sections for tracks renewal
and maintenance works.