Journalism of Courage
PASSENGERS who use local trains operating between Pune and Lonavla have flooded the social media platform of Pune division of the Central Railways with complaints of delays in local services. Commuters grumble that a delay of 10 to 15 minutes has become an everyday affair while long delays such as by 30 to 60 minutes too are not rare.
According to the passengers, Pune-Lonavla trains during early morning hours are often delayed. Among these local trains, while one is scheduled to depart from Pune railway station at 6.30 am, another is scheduled to depart from Pune at 9.55 am. Another local train running between Shivajinagar-Lonavla, which is scheduled to depart at 11.20 am, is often delayed by 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
Talegaon-Pune local, which should depart from Talegaon at 7.25 am, often leaves Talegaon at 7.35 am to 7.40 am, passengers complained.
In the evening hours, a Pune-Lonavla train is scheduled to depart at 7.05 pm. Another local train is scheduled to depart from Pune railway station at 8.05 pm. However, they get delayed on a daily basis, say passengers. Similarly, a Lonavla-Pune local train, scheduled to start from Lonavla at 9.35 pm, often either gets a delayed start or halts at other stations on the way, reaching Pune at about 11.30 pm instead of 10.55 pm, they alleged.
Nitin Bhavsar, a commuter, said that since a majority of the rakes used for local services are old, they can’t achieve the intended speed of 100 kmph and hence get delayed. “Those going to offices and colleges often get delayed by half an hour or a full hour. The service is not reliable at all,” said Bhavsar. He added that just last week, a local train he was travelling in took 50 minutes to cover a 7.5 km journey from Khadki to Pune railway station. Passengers who bear the brunt of local train delays often use Pune Division’s Twitter page to vent their anger.
“Many thanks for making me and all the passengers late to their office or college (by) more than an hour….due to delay in Lonavla local 99808 running late by more than one hour. Punctuality butchered. Frustrating. Stuck at Chinchwad yet,” Manoj Jajam, a traveller, tweeted on December 3.
Harsha Shah of Railway Pravasi Group said that while there have been pending demands of additional local trains, considering the increasing commuter population, the way existing local services are being run is putting off the passengers.
“Many prefer to use their own vehicles, buses or rickshaws because you can’t just rely on the local service. The railway authorities should speed up the work of automation of signals which may help them run the local trains on time. Otherwise the day is not far when people will stop using the service at all,” said Shah. She added that failures of the train service was also on the rise apart from frequent work blocks which result in cancellation of services, affecting the passengers further.
When approached for a comment, railway spokesperson Manoj Jhawar said that the issue is being monitored by newly appointed Divisional Railway Manager Milind Deouskar. “We are continuously working to avoid any delays in the local services. In fact, now local trains are being preferred over mail express trains. DRM is very particular that the locals should run on time and nothing is being left to chance,” said Jhawar. He said that the recent delays could be due to “foggy weather” as well as “technical blocks” being conducted to carry out maintenance work.
