In an unprecedented move that railway experts say amounts to “surrendering to protesters”, the Railway Board on Friday has cancelled over 250 trains connecting New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations with destinations across the country ahead of a protest planned by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on October 10, demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The cancellations cover passenger trains scheduled to depart from their originating stations after 2 pm on October 9, as well as those scheduled to arrive at New Delhi or Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations between 4 am and 2 pm on October 10.
Trains scheduled to depart from these two stations for their respective destinations, along with local trains, have also been cancelled, taking the total number of cancellations to over 250.
The move has drawn sharp criticism over the inconvenience caused to thousands of passengers. A section of railway experts, passenger bodies and recognised federations have criticised the decision, describing it as “unprecedented”, “unfortunate” and “anti-passenger”.
“The decision to cancel so many trains amounts to surrendering to the protesters. It is very unfortunate,” said Subodh Jain, former Member (Engineering) of the Railway Board.
He said there had been instances of one or two trains being cancelled due to agitations in the past, but never so many at once.
“So far as I remember, it has never happened in the history of Indian Railways that so many trains were cancelled just because of a protest or agitation in any part of the country. I condemn this unfortunate and anti-passenger move,” Shiv Gopal Mishra, general secretary of the All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF), told PTI.
He said the abrupt cancellations had caused huge inconvenience to thousands of passengers, many of whom might be travelling for urgent medical reasons, work or family gatherings.
It was only during the COVID-19 pandemic that train operations were stopped due to the lockdown. Otherwise, cancellations on such a large scale have never happened, particularly because of a protest, Mishra said.
Passenger associations from different parts of the country also highlighted the plight of travellers, calling the Board’s decision an ill-conceived move that would cause extreme hardship to ordinary citizens.
Many passengers book tickets 60 days in advance. They wait for their journeys, many of which are urgent, and all of a sudden, trains are cancelled without any valid explanation. If the government wanted to stop protesters from coming to Delhi, it could have adopted several other measures rather than harassing passengers, said Basant Kumar Shukla, secretary of the Nagpur-based passenger group Bhartiya Yatri Kendra.
He demanded that the Railways make special arrangements for affected passengers or give them priority in ticket bookings if they wished to travel on alternative dates.
M Jameel Ahamed, chairman of the Coimbatore District Railway Passengers’ Welfare Association, said the number of passengers affected was so large that the adverse impact could continue to affect reservation availability for several days.
“I would call it a knee-jerk reaction, taken without considering its adverse impact on passengers’ interests. Such a move is unexpected from a national transporter,” Ahamed said.
Some experts suggested that, if the Railway Board was genuinely concerned about traffic chaos, it could have terminated the affected trains at stations closest to New Delhi or Hazrat Nizamuddin. This would have allowed passengers travelling for urgent reasons to make alternative arrangements from those stations.
“There is no rationale behind these cancellations. The only aim of the Railway Board was to stop protesters from coming to Delhi. Trains are operating from Delhi to other destinations without any traffic-related issues, but passengers travelling from other stations cannot reach Delhi.
“This is a strange logic,” a retired railway official said.
He added that the cancellations had also created confusion among passengers, many of whom were uncertain whether trains passing through New Delhi or Hazrat Nizamuddin en route to other destinations would halt at the stations or pass through without stopping.
“Will such trains stop at New Delhi or Nizamuddin stations? What if they don’t stop? Such uncertainty is disrupting passengers’ travel plans,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
