‘A Bitter Experience’: North Bengal Passengers Wait For Hours As Kanchanjunga Express Accident Disrupts Services

Several passengers were left stranded at West Bengal’s New Jalpaiguri station on Tuesday and Wednesday after many trains running across the route to and from North Bengal were delayed by several hours.

This came following the massive train accident that claimed the lives of 10 people and injured many more as a goods train collided with the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express near Bengal’s Rangapani station on June 17.

Amidst the fiasco on the railway routes of North Bengal, many passenger trains were cancelled, diverted and rerouted over the past few days. Among these were trains like Saraighat express, Vande Bharat express, Padatik express and Darjeeling Mail that were running on this affected route.

News18 Journalist Shares Personal Experience

As someone among the stranded passengers at the New Jalpaiguri station on the intervening night of June 18 and 19, I witnessed the hapless condition of people who were either on their way back from North Bengal or reached there after hours of train delay.

Visuals of families with children and elderly people sitting on plastic sheets, nestled at the platforms and the adjoining station area depicted the plight of the travellers.

My train, the Sealdah-bound Padatik express, was supposed to depart from New Jalpaiguri station at 8:30 pm on June 18 but was delayed by over 7 hours. After arriving at around 5 am the next morning, the train, which was supposed to reach Sealdah at 6:45 am on June 19, reached the destination at 10:30 pm.

Since I was travelling with my two pet dogs, the situation became more difficult. We were seated on the platform with them all through the night, while it rained heavily.

The railways had sent a message of the train being delayed by 3 hours on the evening of June 18, but when we reached the station in accordance with the new timing, we found that it has now been delayed by several more hours.

NFR Says Trains Expected To Run On Time From June 19

Speaking to News18, Northeast Frontier Railway spokesperson Sabyasachi De said, “The delay in the train services on this route is because few trains got delayed after the Kanchanjunga express accident and that chain of delay continued for the next two days. It is not because of the accident debris on the tracks, all of that has already been cleared.”

When asked about the condition of the passengers who were waiting for hours at the New Jalpaiguri station, the NFR Spokesperson said, “We have not faced any bunching of passengers at any railway station till now. All our existing facilities were enough to cater to the passengers who were at the station.”

Tourists Share Concerns

The scenes from the New Jalpaiguri station, however, hinted at a slightly different picture as opposed to what the NFR official had to say.

A woman, named Soma Mishra, who was sitting at the platform on Tuesday night, said that it’s unfortunate how the railways did not think about the passengers and left them waiting on the platforms amid such heavy rainfall. She said, “We tried booking the AC waiting room and even the executive lounge in the station so that we can sit comfortably with our belongings but all of these places were full of people and they were not accepting any more bookings.”

She also said that they tried to make online bookings of these waiting rooms but all that was in vain.

“We expect the railways to be a little more thoughtful when it comes to providing help to passengers of delayed trains,” she added.

Another passenger, Debabrata Basu, who was travelling back to Kolkata from Siliguri also expressed his dissent on the situation, saying, “It’s an extremely bitter experience and the railway authorities should have been attentive to the concerns of the passengers.”

His wife added to the conversation saying that a delay of 1-2 hours is still understandable but keeping people waiting for 5 to 7 hours on the platforms is absolutely unacceptable.

In another case, a female traveller who came from New Delhi shared that her train was delayed by nearly 10 hours. “I am here to visit Darjeeling and Sikkim, my train was delayed for too long. Amidst all this, even the cab drivers are charging exorbitant prices to take us to the hills”, the lady shared.