Hordes of passengers were left waiting long hours for trains at the New Complex of Howrah station on Wednesday, the third straight day of disruptions of services triggered by a signal glitch.
Many trains to and from Howrah have been delayed.
Several passengers alleged inadequate public announcements at platforms.
The enquiry counter was crowded at frequent intervals. People demanded, often aggressively, for updates on trains. The men behind the counters did not always have an answer.
A schoolteacher from the city reached Puri with his parents around noon on Wednesday, almost five hours behind schedule. The train, scheduled to depart Howrah at 10.35pm the night before, finally left around 1.30am, he said.
“The retiring rooms were full. The concourse was packed. There was hardly any place to sit,” said Pradip Singha Roy, who teaches physics at a private school in Kasba.
The train was supposed to have left at 10.30pm. He had received a prior message from IRCTC, saying the train had been delayed and was rescheduled for departure at 11.45pm.
There was no announcement on whether the train was leaving at 11.14pm, he alleged.
The teacher was part of a group that went to the enquiry booth after 11.45pm. They were told that “no platform was available”.
The group then went to the station master’s office who could not give them a satisfactory answer. The train finally chugged into platform number 18 instead of 23 around 12.45am.
“There was a prior announcement about the change in platform,” he said.
The “cascading effect” of a glitch in the signalling system near Santragachhi station on Sunday has been blamed for the disruptions.
A yard remodelling work at Santragachhi was done between April 30 and May 18.
Soon after the non-interlocking phase — work began on May 18 and continued for over seven hours — was over, the glitch happened.
Throughout the day, the display boards at the concourse showed that trains were delayed, much like they had been doing on Monday and Tuesday.
The sultry conditions did not help. The Celsius had shot up to almost 37 degrees and the minimum relative humidity was above 50 per cent, meaning people felt much hotter than it was and sweated profusely. The station fans breathed hot air.
“The scale of the problem has gone down. We hope Thursday will be better,” said an official of the South Eastern Railway.
The South Eastern Railway handles many trains from Howrah connecting Puri, Bhuvaneswar, Mumbai and several south Indian cities.
Several long-distance and local trains to and from Howrah have been cancelled on Thursday.