A train journey that ended before it commenced

LUCKNOW : For some, train journeys are exciting and for others they may be exhausting and boring. But for a senior city lawyer AP Sinha, a recent journey simply meant a perfectly miserable experience of waiting for a train that was several hours overdue. Sinha, who has now approached the Railway Ministry highlighting the common man’s plight, blamed the lethargic system behind his train journey that ended before it had begun.

Sinha, who is also a member of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Bar Association, Mumbai, booked tickets well in advance, just to avert last minute hassles. He booked tickets in Doon Express (13009) for himself, his wife and three-year-old grand- daughter.

He got the confirmed tickets (berth no 7 and 8) of AC II in A1 coach. The date of journey was May 23, 2017 and scheduled departure was 6.25pm. As usual, Sinha packed his bags well in advance and out of anxiety, decided to get the running status of the train.

Sinha said this was the time when his never ending trauma began.

“Since the journey was scheduled at 6pm, I called 139 (inquiry) at around 3pm. I was told that the train was running late by two and a half,” said Sinha.

He then tried to find out the train’s position through internet and learned that the train had crossed Faizabad at around 7pm. “Since the distance between Lucknow and Faizabad is 120 km, I decided to leave for the station with the family members,” he said.

Sinha reached platform no 4 at around 8:15pm. The platform was crowded and stray animals were adding to the woes of the passengers waiting for the train to arrive in sultry weather.

“But on reaching the station, there was no sign of Doon Express. My grand-daughter kept asking me about the train’s position, but I was clueless,” he said.

Officials at the station kept on making irregular and vague announcements about the train’s arrival time, he said. “Finally at 10pm, I heard what I wanted to hear for the past couple of hours—announcement of Doon Express. It was announced that the train was running late by 5 hours. It added to our discomfiture as it was literally becoming unbearable to wait any longer in such humid weather along with a threeyearold. We were literally getting fatigued,” he said.

To add to the miseries, the labourers who were engaged in the construction of a lift between platforms 4 and 5, made loud noise and a lot of dust flew thick that made it difficult to stand on the platform.

Sinha and family waited for another hour but still there was no sign of the train, nor was there any announcement about its arrival time. Another hour passed and the Sinhas’ condition became more miserable. “It was 12:45am and we were still standing at the dirty, filthy, dusty platform, amid huge banging noise. We were extremely tired and had lost all hope of travelling. So with our confirmed tickets, we returned home. We were not even in a position to ask the travel agent to cancel our tickets to initiate the refund,” he added.

In his two-page mail with a subject—‘My train journey, which never commenced’ to the Railway ministry, Sinha said, “It is my humble prayer that if the condition of Indian Railways is not improved, it will shatter all hope from the present dedicated government.”