(FE)
With winter showing up in Delhi, around 10 trains were cancelled, while 17 arrived late, leaving 2 rescheduled due to operational reasons and decreased visibility in the national capital. Earlier, the Indian Railways had decided to cancel 46 trains between December 1 and February 13. This has been done keeping in mind the foggy conditions in north India. A few days back, it was the financial capital of India, Mumbai which woke up to a dense layer of fog on Saturday morning, forcing the Railways to delay the trains by 30 to 40 minutes. The Central Railways which had no other option but to change the time of the trains also had appealed to the passengers to remain calm and not to resort to unlawful protests and further hinder train operations.
In the wake of the trains being delayed, Railways has sent out more than 33 lakh text messages to passengers alerting them about their trains being delayed for over an hour. The service was started last month for 102 premium trains on November 3 and till December 7. Passengers of 23 pairs of Rajdhani and 26 pairs of Shatabdi and one pair each of Tejas and Gatiman trains have received 33,08,632 SMSes sent out by the Railways at its own expense. And now, with the “success” of this service, senior railway officials were quoted as saying that by next year, it will be extended to passengers of 148 other premium trains like Duronto and Suvidha soon, enabling them to plan their arrival at the stations. It will also help the national transporter decongest platforms.
