KOCHI: Railway passengers’ associations have come out against the hike in the fares of long-distance trains, including AC coaches. While welcoming the Railways’ decision to not increase the fares of ordinary services and season tickets, they pointed out that the fervour the Railways shows in increasing the fares should also reflect in bettering the facilities that make train journey seamless.
Friends on Rails has registered its strong protests against the measures taken by the Railways to increase revenue by cutting down on the number of general compartments.
“These compartments have been restricted to one section in some trains. There has been a reduction in the number of de-reserved bogies since the introduction of LHB (Linke-Hofmann-Busch) coaches,” said a Friends on Rails representative. Women passengers have pointed out the insufficient number of ladies’ compartments.
“From two compartments in some passenger and express trains, it has been reduced to one. And that too with the size of the coaches having gone down from full to half,” said Satidevi R, who works at a government office in Tripunithura.
Friends on Rails also highlighted the tactic of delaying trains that arrive on time. “They halt a train that is running on time to allow the passage of a train that is late by two or more hours. Then there is the trick of halting trains in the outer areas of stations. Such waiting time extend to more than 30 minutes,” said another passenger.