20 MISS TRAIN AT THANE AS IT ARRIVES 40 MINS BEFORE TIME

THANE: Around 20 passengers of the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) to Lucknow 22121 train were left hassled on Saturday as it passed the halt station at Thane nearly 40 minutes before the scheduled time. Passengers claimed the railways did not inform them about the prescheduling of the service.

The Ltt-lucknow train was scheduled to reach and halt at Thane at 2:43pm on Saturday, but it reached the station by 2:05pm. After two hours of inconvenience, the station manager finally assured the passengers seats in another train from Panvel.

Amit Patil, 41, a passenger from Mulund who was going to take the train along with seven friends to attend a wedding, said they reached Thane station at 2:15pm. “As there was no announcement, we approached the station manager. We were shocked to find out about the prescheduling as we didn’t get an alert.”

Meanwhile, the station manager claimed the LTT- Lucknow express was rescheduled a few days ago, but that the alert is supposed to be sent by the IRCTC. “There could be a technical issue or passengers may have given a wrong phone number or else all other 1,500 passengers travelling on the train would have missed it. However, we have informed the concerned authority to find out the reason behind the problem,” said R K Meena, station manager, Thane station. “We have arranged another train, PanvelGorakhpur express, for the passengers, which halts at Kalyan.”

PRIYANKA DHOMSE