Last-minute cancellation of trains during holiday season draws flak from people

The frequent last-minute cancellation of trains, by various railway zones for ‘safety-related development works’, is throwing the travel plans of travellers haywire and irritating. Passengers, who book their tickets three to four months in advance, are all the more upset, say rail users.

The rail users have taken to social media platforms to express their ire at the railway authorities. Trains are the most preferred mode of transport in view of their safety, comfort and economy. Passengers are booking their tickets up to four months in advance as the ‘Advance Reservation Period’ (ARP) has been increased to 120 days in the past.

In anticipation of the tremendous demand ahead of the holidays and the tourism season, which starts with the Dasara festival and continues up to Sankranti and beyond, many travellers book their tickets months in advance. “The continuous cancellation of trains like Simhadri, Janmbabhoomi, Uday Express by SCR, E Co R and other zones due to safety-related works, interlocking works, 3rd line works and track maintenance works during the festival season and holidays is causing inconvenience to reserved passengers,” says Duvvada Railway Users’ Association secretary K. Eswar.

“The cancellation/extended cancellation will also upset their onward/return reservations apart from hotel/road transport bookings for sight seeing. The cancellations also lead to loss of money and pinch the pockets of travellers as they have to look for alternative travel modes paying high fare at the eleventh hour,” he says.

At a time, when the existing trains are insufficient, and the usual practice is to run special trains to meet the tremendous demand from passengers during festivals and holidays, the cancellation of existing trains is like rubbing salt on the wounds of passengers, says V.R.K. Raju, a resident of Kurmannapalem.

‘Restore Simhadri Express’

Meanwhile, Kakinada MP Vanga Geetha has urged the railway authorities to restore the Simhadri Express train. She noted that passengers were facing difficulties to travel between Visakhapatnam and Guntur due to the cancellation of the train for track repairs over the past two months. She had also sought restoration of the MEMU (Mainline Electric Multiple Unit) train from Rajamahendravaram to Visakhapatnam.