An agonising wait at fag end

Several trains taking more than an hour to reach Vizag from Anakapalle testing the patience of passengers. Railway passengers, who begin their journey on June 24 and reach their destination after June 25, can consider themselves lucky.

Pleasant journeys are turning into bitter experience for passengers towards the fag end of their journey as they are generally reaching Visakhapatnam Junction late by one hour or more. Many trains like the prestigious Secunderabad – Visakhapatnam Duronto and CSTM (Mumbai) – Bhubaneswar are frequently taking more than an hour to reach Visakhapatnam from Anakapalle, about 40 km away. Train No. 18520 LTT (Mumbai) – Vizag reached around an hour late on Monday afternoon. The train stopped frequently between Elamanchili and Vizag and one regrets his or her decision of having taken the super fast express.

The trains going towards Vijayawada take around 40 minutes to cover the same distance.

Train No. 08502 Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam special takes two-and-a-half hours to cover the 40-km distance. It arrives at 4 a.m. at Anakapalle and reaches Visakhapatnam at 6.30 a.m. In other words, a slack time of around two hours is given to some of these trains.

The non-availability of platforms during peak hours at Visakhapatnam junction is said to be the major cause for holding up of trains at Duvvada, Gopalapatnam, and Kancharapalem.

Railway land is available for construction of four more platforms on the Gnanapuram-side, but who cares?

Railway passengers, who begin their journey on June 24 and reach their destination after June 25, can consider themselves lucky.

The steep hike of 14.2 per cent on passenger fares will come into effect from June 25. While those who begin their journey before the D-Day can book their tickets at the old rate, those who start out on their journeys on June 25 will have to pay more, due to revised fares. Even those who had reserved their journeys two months ago for travel on June 25 or later have to pay the difference in fares on board the train. But, those who begin their journey hours before the new fares come into effect can breathe easy. This was the general feeling among the passengers though there was some amount of confusion.

Officials of the Commercial Department could not be reached over the phone for clarity on the issue.

The Bhubaneswar-Secunderabad Visakha Express was delayed by about an hour at Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

The train left Vizag at its scheduled time but after leaving the platform and reaching near the cabin, passengers travelling by the III AC coach, pulled the chain to protest against the malfunctioning of the AC. The train was taken back to the station and the problem was rectified and it finally left at 5.50 p.m.