Title - Railway's Lucknow division demands another train to Mumbai

LUCKNOW: There are at least a hundred passengers every day who fail to book a ticket for 3 AC in any of the Mumbai-bound trains from Lucknow. 250-odd passengers buy a waitlisted ticket. The scene isn't better for other AC classes or even the sleeper or the unreserved class. Lucknow division, despite being denied the opportunity thrice in the past, has tendered in yet another proposal demanding an extra train to Mumbai.

The North Eastern Railway (NER) has sent a proposal voicing the demand for new trains to its head office. Though sources admitted that announcing new trains for the division is more of a political decision, they said the surging demand for rail tickets to destinations like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore is becoming difficult to handle.

According to railways' year-long estimate, there are at least a thousand passengers who fail to board trains at Lucknow for Mumbai everyday because of the rush. Estimates show that despite several trains running from Lucknow and Gorakhpur to Mumbai on all weekdays, over 2,000 passengers fail to get a berth to Mumbai. In keeping with the surge, the Lucknow division of NER has been asking for a new train from the division to Mumbai.

"It's not that we have dearth of trains to Mumbai but the waiting list is increasing every year," said sources. In one of the assessments done in 2010-11, railways sold at least 2,720 waitlisted tickets for sleeper class for five trains that run between Gorakhpur and Mumbai - 11016 Kushinagar Express, 12541 Gorakhpur LTT Superfast, 11056 Godan Express, 15018 Gorakhpur LTT Express and 19038 Avadh Express. Another 1,150 passengers could not get their tickets confirmed on these trains.

The demand for tickets in AC class was equally high. Records say on an average while more than a 100 passengers booked tickets in 2 AC and 200 bought a waitlisted ticket for 3 AC, over 45 failed to secure a berth in 2 AC and 85 could not book a seat in 3 AC on any given day. Though waiting list for Pushpak Express was not assessed, there is no denying the train has a huge waiting list every day. "The number has grown in the last two years," added sources.

The division in the proposal sent last year had also asked for a new train between Nautanwa and Mumbai to run through Gorakhpur and Lucknow. Nautanwa is 370 kms from Lucknow and 90 kms from Gorakhpur. The train never arrived. From Gorakhpur, at least 2,000 unreserved tickets are sold every day to Mumbai. From Basti and Gonda, the number is as high as 612 and 599. From Nautanwa, at least 105 passengers reserve their tickets and some 50 buy unreserved tickets.

It's also a loss to the Railways as most of these tickets get refunded. There is also huge passenger traffic for Delhi but Railways, due to overcrowded trains, cannot cater to the demand. Trains like 12555 Gorakdham Express, 12553 Vaishali Express, 12557 Sapt Kranti Express, 12565 Bihar S Kranti, 12523 New Jalpaiguri-New Delhi Express are running over-crowded. Moreover, estimates of 2010-11 for first, second and third AC, for the available trains, show more than 300 waiting list tickets for Delhi every day on an average.

There is a rising demand for travel to Pune too. "We have asked to increase the frequency of existing weekly train Yashwantpur Express to Pune," said sources. When contacted Radheyshyam senior divisional commercial manager, NER, said, "We have sent the demand for extra trains to our head office in Mumbai and Delhi."

Besides, the two divisions have also written about the infrastructural bottlenecks faced by them. Sources at northern railway shared that it's the shortage of washing line which has made maintenance of existing trains difficult. Additional platforms are also required for punctual running of trains.