Passengers wait for trains at Patna Junction on Sunday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, May 8: Despite the East Central Railway (ECR) running several special trains to clear the rush during summer, trains are going packed and there is no berth available in trains going to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai till the last week of June.

Waiting lists have crossed more than 100 for trains, which include Rajdhani Express (12309), Shramjeevi Express (12391), Sampoorn Kranti Express (12393), Sanghamitra Express (12296), Patna-Pune Express (12150) and Rajendra Nagar-Lokmanya Tilak Express (13201).

All trains leaving Patna railway station are going jam-packed and passengers are in fact ready to travel sitting on the floor of the train if they are not getting their tickets confirmed. The condition at Patna Junction is chaotic, there is hardly any space to even walk properly as passengers are found waiting at the station to catch any train to reach their destination.

Passengers are facing difficulties while getting confirmed ticket. Speaking to Manoj Singh, a passenger at Patna junction near the reservation counter said: “This month I want to go to Delhi for an urgent work but tickets are not available till last week of June. How is it possible that tickets are not available despite booking 40 to 50 days in advance?”

Another passenger, Mohammad Sheik, said: “There is only one train for Bangalore and its completely jam-packed, my ticket is in reservation against cancellation and I hope that at least I will get a place to sit. I would be very happy because there are other passengers whose tickets are in the waiting list, even though they have come to board the train.”

However, ECR is running several weekly summer specials trains from June 30 to cope with the summer rush which include Barauni-New Delhi Adarsh Nagar-Barauni weekly special, Gaya-New Delhi-Gaya weekly superfast and Bhagalpur-New Delhi-Bhagalpur weekly superfast but tickets are not available on these train as well.

Station master of Patna Junction, Raju Ji said: “There is a rush in most of the trains departing from Patna Junction but we are trying to mobilise the situation as people are sleeping on the platforms and are willing to catch any train so that they can reach their destination but the railway has its own limitation. The frequency of passengers travelling in the train has increased suddenly as many people are going outside the state.”