Thrown off track

If you are planning to travel to orfrom the Capital between September 5 and September 15 by train, be warned.With Northern Railway installing the new route relay interlockingsystem along 1278 routes ��� the largest on Indian Railways ��� in aneffort to increase platform handling capacity by over 33% at the New Delhistation, over 62 trains will be cancelled, 126 terminated short of theirdestination and 50 diverted during the period.Among the trains beingcancelled for the period are the Jammu Rajdhani and the Ajmer Shatabdi. "Thefrequency of the Jammu Rajdhani was increased by the railway minister in thisbudget. It is shocking that the most important train to the valley has beencancelled for almost 10 days," said a senior railway official. The other trainsto be cancelled include the Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani, Ranchi Rajdhani, KaifiyaatExpress, Lichchavi Express and the Sadhvabna Express.However, whatwill prove to be a bigger bother for passengers is the termination of a numberof trains at smaller stations like Sarai Rohilla (Amritsar Shatabdi and KalkaShatabdi), Delhi Cantonment (Ahmedabad Rajdhani) and Delhi Safdarjung, which isnot easy to access. With little infrastructure in place, many passengersexpressed dismay at the prospect of disembarking at such places. "I did not evenknow there are stations at Adarsh Nagar or Delhi Cantonment. I know thatShakurbasti is a halt for local trains. I have no idea how to even reach thesestations," said Bhavna Sharma, a housewife who has planned a family outing inSeptember on the Ahmedabad Rajdhani.Several important trains havebeen diverted to originate from Old Delhi station. With 150 trains alreadyoriginating from there and another 30 to be added, the bottlenecks around thestation are expected to increase. Security too remains an area of concern. Thestation has received several threats in the recent past. "We are planning tobeef up security here by deploying an extra battalion of RPF. This is importantas the Samjhauta Express originates from this station," said an official. Amongthe important trains scheduled to depart from this station are the HowrahRajdhani, Dehradun Shatabdi, Sapt Kranti Express, Lucknow Shatabdi, Lucknow Mailand Jharkhand Samparkranti.Meanwhile, what is worse is that a fewtrains will be regulated hundreds of kilometres away from the Capital. Forinstance, the popular Himalayan Queen will be terminated at Panipat fromSeptember 6 to 15. All three trains from Orissa ��� Purushottam, Puri andNeelachal ��� will be terminated at Kanpur, a five-hour journey fromDelhi.Amid all the rescheduling, confusion reigns supreme. Seniorrailway officials appeared as clueless as passengers. "We are banking on themedia to spread awareness. The Indian Railways website will also have the basicinformation. However, the possibility of commuter discomfort remains,���said Railways spokesperson. The arrangements made to deal with the situationalso seemed inadequate."We have informed the Delhi government aboutthe diversions and asked for cooperation in road transport services. There areplans to open additional ticket counters to handle passenger rush but everythingwill depend on how things take shape on the first two days," said an official atNew Delhi railwaystation.