Train ACs fail summer test

With mercury soaring high, poor cooling in the air conditioned train compartments is giving nightmarish experiences to the train passengers, leaving them gasping for fresh air. A few train passengers have also approached the railway ministry through its Twitter handle, but to no avail.

“Sir, in train 13413 from Lucknow to Delhi, in A1 coach AC is not working,” reads a tweet of DK Anand, a passenger who boarded the train from the state capital. In his tweet to railway minister Suresh Prabhu, Anand also mentioned the condition of three foreigners in the same compartment, saying the poor cooling left them ‘breathless’.

Another tweet by Saurabh Dutta also said the AC of the train (14265) was not working.

Poor or slow cooling in AC compartments is becoming a major concern for passengers, as temperature is soaring with each passing day. “It’s a major issue, but surprisingly it is being taken lightly by the railways,” said Saurabh Gupta, a passenger.

Railway officials said the issue was quite common in trains equipped with non-LHB coaches. Unlike LHB coaches that are well equipped with heavy duty generators, enough to pump power to the train’s AC, the AC in the regular coaches depends on the train’s movement. “The longer it will move the cooler will be the compartment,” said a senior railway officer. But in many cases, either due to frequent chain pulling or erratic train movement, AC does not work very effectively.

Shivendra Shukla, senior DRM, Northern Railway (NR) said strict instructions had been given to the departments concerned to ensure proper cooling in trains.