An SCR official during his journey finds the woes of passengers of fully-packed Janmabhoomi as well as the staff on duty
A senior official of South Central Railway, who travelled by the Secunderabad–Visakhapatnam Janmabhoomi Express last week, was caught unawares when he found not only the II sitting but also AC chair cars were overcrowded, with passengers standing in the aisle.
The official was learnt to be travelling as part of a survey to study the feasibility of running a double decker AC express on the Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Janmabhoomi Express withdrawing the rake from the Guntur-Tirupathi double-decker AC express, which failed to draw passengers.
He found that heavy rush was obstructing the movement of railway employees on duty like ticket checking staff and AC mechanics and even vendors.
Some picked up arguments with the employees for the poor service and lack of air-conditioning.
When an employee tried to convince him saying that AC would not function properly when the coach was overcrowded, the passenger did not give up his aggressive attitude and even argued with a civil policeman in uniform, for trying to come to the rescue of the employee.
When a TTE wanted to check the ticket, another passenger reminded him of a recent incident of a TTE being pushed out of a train.
These incidents are forcing the employees to refrain from antagonising the passengers.
The senior official also found the few vendors, who could make their way through the crowd, were selling tea/coffee in 75 ml cups instead of the standard 150 ml, charging Rs.30 for a little quantity of curd rice and Rs.10 for 30 gm of peanut, packed in thick polythene sachets.
To add to the woes of Janmabhoomi passengers, the train was being given very little priority and was generally running two hours late.
SpiceJet, which has announced a second service from Vizag to Bangalore, is also offering convenient onward connections to important domestic destinations.
The new service, which will leave Vizag at 7.30 a.m. and reach Bangalore at 9 a.m., offers onward connections to Pune, Bombay and Goa, with the waiting time for connecting flights ranging from 1 hour to 4 hours for these destinations, and to Cochin from Bangalore after nearly 8 hours.
The morning service of SpiceJet from Vizag to Bangalore will be operational from September 15.
vizagdesk@thehindu.co.in
