Pune: Fog often delays trains by 10 to 15 hours, which causes inconvenience to passengers. A similar situation often arises due to train accidents or major technical faults. To combat such an eventuality, the Pune Railway Division has taken an initiative to make sure that passengers do not suffer due to the delay of the train.
The composition in three trains - 11077 Jhelum Express, 12129 Azad Hind Express and 12149 Pune-Danapur Superfast - that depart from Pune, has been made uniform. These three trains are in great
demand from passengers.
These trains will now have two AC 2-tier, six AC 3-tier and 10 sleeper coaches.
Earlier, Jhelum had two AC 2-tier, five AC 3-tier and 10 sleepers, Azad Hind Express had one AC 2-tier, six AC 3-tier and 11 sleepers while Pune-Danapur had one AC 2-tier, four AC 3-tier and 13 sleeper coaches.
As per the highly placed sources, who did not want to be named, “The composition of these trains will be the same now. This will help us in future if the train is delayed due to fog or any other reason. We can manage by using another train to run for the affected route.” The official pointed out that one rake of the Jhelum Express always lying in the yard to run for the next day.
“Jhelum is running between Pune and Jammu Tawi and Azad Hind is running from Pune to Howrah. During the fog, we can’t say that all the trains will run on time
If the Azad Hind delay for 10 hours, we will not cancel the train and it will depart on time by using one rake of Jhelum which is not used for the day. Similarly, when Azad Hind arrives we can use it on Pune-Danapur route if the train gets affected and when the Danapur-Pune gets delayed we can use it for Jhelum,” the officer said.
However, using a similar composition the officials have reduced the sleeper coach. Sleeper coach is always in demand and passengers if not booked their tickets in an air-conditioned coach, they opt for sleeper coach. If they reduce the sleeper coaches then the passenger will suffer more.
