Jamshedpur: Software professional Koushik Chatterjee, who uses Steel Superfast Express to travel to and from Calcutta, is seriously thinking of switching trains on his way back. For, the Steel Express is being delayed regularly these days, often reaching Tatanagar as late as 10.30pm when it is scheduled reach an hour earlier.

Jugsalai resident Akash Agarwal, who travels to Calcutta twice a week, is extremely upset that the Steel Express reaches late, especially so in winter when night temperatures in the steel city touches 10 degree Celsius.

In the last fortnight, the most popular train between Jamshedpur and Calcutta has managed to reach the steel city only after 10pm which is an average delay of 30 minutes against a scheduled reaching time of 9.30pm.

On November 27, the train reached Jamshedpur at 11pm (see chart).

According to railway records, the train seems to run on schedule till Kharagpur, maintaining an average speed of 110km per hour through its 251km journey. Thereafter, it gets delayed.

Sources said the reasons behind this are an increase in goods train traffic and delays in allotting a platform at Tatanagar Station when Steel Express's arrival coincides with the arrivals of long-distance trains. During such time, Steel Express is made to halt at Asanboni or Rakhamines.

But, officials of South Eastern Railway (SER) claimed the recent delays were due to ongoing track maintenance work on the Kharagpur-Tatanagar section.

"Speed restrictions have been imposed at various stretches because of the maintenance work. This varies between 40kmph and 80kmph which leads to delays," SER chief public relations officer Sanjay Ghosh told The Telegraph. He said the track work, which began in the second week of November, was likely to be completed by the end of December.

Ghosh, however, revealed that the journey to Howrah was much better as on most days the train is able to maintain schedule. "Except for one or two days, when the train got delayed because of fog on the Ghatshila section of SER's Kharagpur division, the train reached Howrah at the scheduled time of 10.20am," he said.

But he assured frequent commuters that the delays would be addressed soon. "The delays are a temporary feature. As soon as the maintenance work gets over, the train will run punctually," he promised.

Senior functionary of Chhotanagpur Passenger Association Arun Tiwari was sceptical. "The train is not reliable. Passengers, especially traders of the steel city, use Steel Express so that they can complete a day trip to Calcutta. But if the train reaches Jamshedpur at 10.30pm or 11pm one can understand their pain," he said, adding that it was unfair on the part of the railways to levy extra charges by virtue of the train being classified as "superfast".

Software professional Chatterjee was blunt. "Steel Express is an important train and if takes four-and-half hours to five hours to cover 250km it is a blot on railways. It is better to travel by Mumbai Mail which reaches Jamshedpur at 11pm but takes only four hours," he said.