Title - Holi rush: No room in trains

Railways fails to run special trains ahead of festival, migrants suffer
Ludhiana:
Festival rush in long route trains and the failure of the Northern Railway to run special trains has upset the travel plans of migrants, who are keen to visit their native places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and North Eastern states ahead of Holi.As almost all long route trains have long waiting lists or in some cases no room status for advance reservation in sleeper, 3-AC and 2-AC classes, a majority of persons visiting the railway station either return disappointed or turn towards unscrupulous booking agents and touts, who promise to get them journey-cum-reservation tickets at a hefty premium.For the migrant population, who intend to flock to their native places ahead of Holi, the only choice remains a couple of trains which have no sleeper class and run only with unreserved (general) compartments. But the plight of those undertaking long rail journeys in grossly overcrowded trains without an assured seat or berth can be well imagined.Enquires made from railway officials revealed that most of long route trains, especially those bound for Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, have waiting lists running into hundreds which practically means that barring a few persons, those on waiting lists will never make it to the confirmed list.

The trains which have become out of bounds for passengers include the Archna Express, Amritsar-Katihar Express, Garib Rath, Amritsar-Howrah Mail, Amritsar-Howrah Express, Begumpura Express, Shaheed Express, Saryu-Yamuna Express, Ganga-Sutlej Express, Malwa Express and Chhatisgarh Express.

After being disappointed at not getting tickets for the entire next week, several intending passengers to Saharsa, Darbhanga and Katihar (in Bihar) asked the railway authorities to run at least one special train with unreserved (general) and sleeper class coaches during the next week.

Intending passengers at the railway reservation complex alleged that some railway booking agents and touts were exploiting the situation by promising confirmed tickets in "tatkal" category for which the "premium" was anything between Rs 350 and Rs 600 for each ticket.

Senior railway officials said a couple of festival special trains had been introduced for Barauni and Darbhanga (Bihar) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat) while additional bogies were also being added to some of the long route trains to cope with the festival rush.