Train No. 12723 Hyderabad - New Delhi Telangana Express was re-rescheduled to depart at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday due to late running of its pairing train, informed an official release on Monday. On Tuesday, the important superfast express train of the South Central Railway (SCR) to New Delhi is running close to nine hours late, having departed Secunderabad station at about 3.15 p.m. as against scheduled time of 6.25 a.m.
This ‘superfast’ express train has been in fact running pretty consistently late by 10 to 12 hours or more, over the last couple of months, sending the travelling passengers schedules into a complete disarray. The train is popular, booked days in advance, and takes about 25 hours to reach the destination.
When compared to other weekly and plusher trains, it is reasonably priced but consistent delays in reaching the destination is causing much inconvenience to passengers. For instance, in the last 12 says, the train has started eight to 12 or 15 hours late and is reaching New Delhi during the nights, midnights or post midnight hours at 1.30 a.m., 2 a.m. and so on.
Last month, and in December too, the train departed late and it meant passengers reaching almost a day late to Delhi. Incidentally, two other daily trains towards Delhi, including Dakshin Express (12721) which takes 29 hours, and Rajdhani Express (22691) which takes 21.35 hours, are late by a few hours only.
Same goes with other seven other weekly trains Duronto (12213), Rajdhani (12437), Kongu (12647), Sampark Kranti (12649). The first train to leave Secunderabad is Telangana Express at about 6.50 a.m. and last train is Dakshin Express leaving at 11 p.m, hence the former is most preferred. “But, I am cancelling my ticket on this train and trying for Tatkal on a weekly train or I may miss a wedding,” said Krishna, a passenger.
Senior railway officials attribute the delays due to winter fog up north leading to slowing down of the trains and the cascading effect has thrown the schedule haywire.
“Late running of the pairing train is leading to delayed departures. We are not in a position to cancel the daily service often, because of the tremendous demand,” they explained.
Other train timings are different, so they escape the peak early morning fog impact, and they are not run daily - so there is no impact of any pairing train. As far as Dakshin Express is concerned, it is usually given lot of lag time, they said. But, few other officials point out that the running time of Telangana Express was reduced in recent times. But, it is also high time, steps are taken to run a special rake to restore scheduled timings for passengers benefit, they added.
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