‘Train Travel During Festive Season Is A Traumatic Experience’
Chandan Singh, a frequent train traveler, recounts his harrowing experience while travelling from Delhi to Lucknow amid heavy rush of passengers. His story:
A few days ago, I booked a train ticket from Delhi to Lucknow. When I reached the Anand Vihar Terminal to board the train, I was shocked to see the rush on the platform. It appeared impossible for me to locate my coach as one could not even walk at own will; you were moving with the sea of passengers. With great difficulty and some jostling around I managed to reach my designated compartment; but I could imagine the plight of an elderly passenger.
My harrowing experience continued inside the compartment. The AC coach was filled to the brim by unruly passengers who literally turned it into cattle class. There was no place to move around or stretch, and the situation continued until I reached Lucknow. There, it was a fresh struggle to get down from the coach.
I have been reading and watching about such situations every festive season when residents of UP-Bihar travel en masse from various cities to reach home for Diwali or Chhath Puja, but to experience it first hand was a traumatic encounter.
It is not that the Railway officials are not aware of such rush; after all this is an annual occurrence for decades. But they wake up from their slumber only when an untoward stampede happens, as did recently at Bandra Terminus. This government has to its credentials superfast trains like Vande Bharat and Namo Bharat Rapid Rails. So why can it not manage the festive rush? Why issue so many tickets when you know that it is next to impossible to accommodate so many passengers? And how are the ticket checking staff expected to check the tickets of every passenger in the train when there is literally no place to even breathe, forget walking in the coach?
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Before the onset of the festive season, a large number of announcements are made regarding steps to be taken to manage crowd inside and outside the train, like special ticket counters, designated holding areas, automated vending machines, increased police presence… Yet, every year the situation only worsens, as I experienced it first-hand. I still cannot figure out why the government and the railways are focusing on crowd management rather than taking steps to limit the number of passengers?
I recently read that the railways has also temporarily suspended the sale of platform tickets in the festive season. How is this going to help? It is a well-established fact that a negligible number of people coming to the railway station for any purpose buy platform tickets and leave behind checking platform tickets, the staff of the railways is hardly able to check the ticket of all the passengers when the crowd deboards a train and rushes out of the station.
I personally cannot make out a suitable and effective remedy for this situation but Railway officials must put their heads together to thrash out a solution. What I can suggest is that besides increasing the number of trains, passengers also need to be educated on a regular basis about the usage of the resources being provided by the government and the options available besides trains to reach their destinations.
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As told to Rajat Rai
