Title - RAIL TRAFFIC HIT, COURTESY FOG

Ludhiana: Rail traffic in the region has been adversely affected due to drop in mercury and a thick cover of fog all around. Most of the long route trains, and even those running between Delhi-Amritsar or Delhi-Jammu are running behind schedule by several hours, causing great inconvenience to the passengers.Railway officials said erratic movement of trains was expected to continue till the prevailing weather conditions showed some sign of improvement. "For safety reasons, speed of the trains has to be regulated during night and wee hours due to poor visibility, which leads to late running of trains." The trains coming from or going to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal were worst affected due to inclement weather.Among trains running on the trunk route 12460 Amritsar-New Delhi Intercity Express was delayed by 4.30 hours, 12029 New Delhi-Amritsar Swarn Shatabdi by 1.05 hourss, 12497 New Delhi-Amritsar Shane-Punjab by 5 hours and 12043 New Delhi-Ludhiana-Moga Shatabdi Express by 40 minutes.The trains coming from or going to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal were worst hit due to inclement weather.The officials said 12372 Himgiri Express (7 hrs), 12237 Varanasi-Jammu Begumpura Express (4.20 hrs), 16317 Himsagar Express (4 hrs), 13040 Howrah-Amritsar Express (4.15 hrs), 12715 Sachkhand Express (4.10 hrs), 15707 Amrapali Express (10 hrs), 12471 Swaraj Express (3.55 hrs), 12919 Indore-Jammu Malwa Express (5 hrs), 15209 Jansewa Express (5.15 hrs), 12203 Saharsa-Amritsar Garib Rath (6.20 hrs), 14649 Sarya-Yamuna Express (3 hrs) and 13005 Howrah-Amritsar Mail (7.35 hrs) were among many other trains running behind schedule.