KOCHI: The fears of commuters who rely on daily passenger train services that their journey will get delayed on account of the launch of Vande Bharat turned out to be true. On Friday, the arrival of Vande Bharat disrupted the normal time schedules of daily passenger trains as the former departed very late from Kottayam station. It was 12 minutes late and this, in turn, had a cascading effect on the other trains which were delayed by 28 to 30 minutes.
According to Liyons J, secretary, of Friends on Rails, it takes 25 to 30 minutes for other trains to cross Vande Bharat.
“Compared to other states, only trains in Thiruvananthapuram division have to wait for such a long time. The reason? The division still follows obsolete signal systems,” he said. “On Friday, Vande Bharat departed from Kottayam 12 minutes late. It caught up with Palaruvi Express at Piravom Road as scheduled. However, Palaruvi Express received the green signal from Piravom after 28 minutes,” said Liyons. With Palaruvi getting delayed, other trains like Ernakulam-Bangalore Intercity and Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode Jan Shatabdi from Ernakulam Junction also got delayed.
When the railways announced the launch of Vande Bharat, passengers’ associations had submitted a representation urging the Railway Board to come up with a schedule that does not affect regular passenger services. “But the Railways announced the new schedule ignoring the demands of passengers,” he said.