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Calcutta, May 29: South Eastern Railway today reeled under the effect of yesterday’s crash, with seven pairs of trains cancelled and several others running far behind schedule, plunging Howrah station into chaos.
The railways have decided not to run passenger trains at night through the Maoist-affected stretches — Kharagpur to Adra and Kharagpur to Tatanagar — till June 1 after which the situation would be reviewed.
“I had called up the station enquiry office in the morning and they said the Howrah-Ranchi Intercity Express, scheduled to leave at 3.05pm, would run on time. But now they are saying it has been cancelled. I don’t know what to do,” said Suranjana Das, standing at the platform with her luggage and her six-year-old son.
“My husband will be waiting in Ranchi and I have an event to attend there tomorrow. I am in a fix.”
A large crowd had gathered outside the enquiry office demanding information on train timings, and the officials inside often lost their cool. “I am trying to keep my cool but the passengers are abusing us for the delay and cancellations when we are not at fault,” said a woman official.
Equally miffed were people who had come to receive relatives at the station and then realised that some of the Howrah-bound trains were running late.
“I have been waiting since morning to receive my brother and sister-in-law who are on the Pune Azad Hind Express. The train was scheduled to reach Howrah at 4am but the officials have not been able to tell me when it will arrive. Even my brother’s cellphone has run out of charge,” said Kamal Shah, sitting on a staircase late in the afternoon.
The railways, however, were more organised in catering to the relatives of the accident victims today. Some officials were assigned solely to man the help desk that took calls about the crash, and lists of the injured and dead were put up at all the help desks.
“We have issued free passes to 16 relatives of the victims and have sent more than 50 empty coffins on four trains,” a railway official said.
“We have had to change some trains’ routes to avoid the damaged sections. This has delayed them for at least four hours. Most trains will run on schedule from tomorrow.”