Dense fog from north India to the Northeast threw train and flight schedules to and from the city haywire over the weekend, delaying everyone from the company CEO to the common man.

Trains forced to move slow or stalled by fog were delayed by up to a day, including the New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express. The Rajdhani that was to arrive on Saturday morning chugged in 23 hours behind schedule, while Sunday’s train was delayed by 12 hours.

“Trains are running at one-fourth the normal speed in most of north India, which is blanketed by fog. Visibility is low and drivers are being able to see the signals from only a few yards,” said a senior official of Eastern Railway.

The New Delhi-Howrah Duronto Express, the Mumbai Mail via Allahabad, Jodhpur Express, Doon Express and Amritsar Mail were also affected by fog.

Several flights arriving and taking off from the city were delayed because of fog in other cities. Jet Airways’s flight from Bangalore arrived an hour and 40 minutes later than scheduled.

“I had an important meeting in the city but was horribly delayed by the bad weather,” said Vishal Bali, the CEO of Fortis Global Healthcare, on arriving from Bangalore.

Four IndiGo flights to and from Bangalore and Jaipur were also delayed by two hours on an average because of poor visibility. Jet Airways said its flight to Dhaka from the city was delayed by an hour, one to Guwahati by one-and-a-half hours and another to Patna by two hours.

For city-based advertisement consultant Arindam Kapoor and his 67-year old mother Sadhana, their fog-hit journey back home from Delhi on the Howrah Rajdhani Express was the worst they had ever had.

Railway officials said the stretch between Delhi and Kanpur was mainly responsible for delays on that route with trains taking up to 16 hours to cover the distance. The stretch normally takes four hours. “The average speed of a Rajdhani Express is 130kmph but on that stretch it is unable to run at more than 30kmph,” said an official.

Passengers on board the January 7 Sealdah Rajdhani Express alleged that they were served “poor quality food” on the delayed train. “They gave us only biscuits once stocks ran out,” a passenger said.

“We don’t have the infrastructure to prepare meals for 800 passengers on board,” said an official of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation.