Fog in north India continues to throw train schedules in Kolkata haywire

KOLKATA: Foggy weather condition persisted in Delhi and the areas surrounding the national capital on Sunday disrupting rail traffic, with a number of Kolkata-bound trains running late.
Besides, 81 Delhi-bound trains were running behind schedule, ranging 4-10 hours, and 40 trains were rescheduled, a senior railway official said. A railway official in Kolkata said the trains were running behind schedule, ranging 14 – 28 hours and over 15 trains were rescheduled to start its onward journey from Kolkata.
“Visibility has remained so low especially post evening and in the early mornings that railway signals could be seen only from a very close distance.Hence our drivers are forced to run either at a very slow speed or just wait for the fog to subside,” said an official.
The slow movement has forced delayed arrival of trains from north India that has forced the rescheduling of trains that are to start from Howrah, Sealdah and Kolkata stations.
The Sealdah Ajmer Express that was scheduled to leave Sealdah station at 11.05pm on Sunday was rescheduled leave at 5am on Monday as the train from Ajmer arrived only at 10pm, running over six hours behind schedule.
The Howrah – Kalka Mail that was to leave the city at 7.40pm on Sunday was rescheduled to leave at 5am the next morning. It was because the train reached Howrah only at 8pm, over twelve hours late. Also, the Jodhpur bound Howrah – Jodhpur Express was rescheduled to leave the city at 8.35am on Monday instead of 11.40pm on Sunday since the train from Jodhpur hadn’t reached the Howrah till 9.30pm.
Fire officials said an express train requires seven to eight hours of maintenance before its next ferry.
“I was wedding film to shoot at Varanasi from Monday afternoon. I had my tickets booked with Howrah – Jodhpur Express. Now that the train has got rescheduled to tomorrow morning, I would never be able to attend my work on time if I depend on the train. I had to cancel the train tickets and book flight tickets for me and my team of four. Each ticket is costing me around Rs. 8000. I don’t know if my client would bear this cost,” said Raunak Singh, a city based creative wedding photographer.