Disruption makes passengers suffer
Disruption makes passengers suffer
Abdus Sobhan has been waiting impatiently at the Kamalapur Railway Station with his family since yesterday morning to go to Rajshahi.
A staff of Rajshahi University, the 57-year-old went to Comilla with his family a week ago. On his way back, he went to the Feni Railway Station on Wednesday at 3:00pm to catch the Godhuli Express to come to Dhaka.
The train which was scheduled to reach Feni at 4:00pm arrived at 8:00pm. It left the station at 9:00pm after waiting there for an hour, and finally reached Kamalapur early hours of yesterday.
Sobhan then waited for the Rajshahi-bound Dhumketu Express which was supposed to leave Dhaka at 6:00am. But, it did leave the station around 2:00pm.
He and his family members could not sleep the whole night amid such uncertainty. He was also worried about his 20-year old son who was staying alone in Rajshahi.
Several hundred passengers like Sobhan were seen anxiously waiting for trains to arrive at the Kamalapur Railway Station yesterday.
Schedule of trains virtually collapsed following authorities' steps to run them below the normal speed in a bid to avert acts of sabotage on trains amid the ongoing nonstop blockade.
More than 130 trains arrive and depart from the station every day, Kamalapur Railway Station Master Sakhawat Hossain Khan told The Daily Star.
Trains on short routes are behind schedule for about an hour. But the long route trains have been facing serious schedule problems. Some of them run even more than 10 hours late, he said.
Miscreants, during the ongoing blockade, removed fishplates from rail tracks, resulting in derailment of the trains and causing disruption in rail communication for a long time, Khan said.
He said trains bound for north Bengal run at half their usual speed in consideration of the safety of passengers.
Khan hoped that the train schedule would become normal once the blockade is lifted.