I am reminded of an episode that occurred 35 years ago when I was posted at Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. I was to travel from Moradabad to my hometown at Kaithal in Haryana to meet my parents. I had planned to board a Howrah-Delhi super-fast train en route from Moradabad around 10 pm and alight en route at Ambala in Haryana around 5 o’clock in the morning. From Ambala, I proposed to catch a bus for a 2-hour long road journey to Kaithal.
This particular journey is etched in my mind for the ordeal I experienced. On reaching the railway station, I glanced the notice on the board that my train would arrive 30 minutes late. I took the delay in my stride as it was not unusual. Just as the delay period of 30 minutes was about to lapse, another stretching of the expected time of arrival by further 30 minutes was announced. I felt a bit irked as I was feeling sleepy now. Late departure from Moradabad meant late arrival at Ambala and subsequent delay in reaching the home.
After one hour, the arrival time of the train was again extended by another 30 minutes. There was no mobile phone in that era of late 1980s. I could not instantly intimate my folks back at Kaithal about the late running of train. Fretting and fuming on social media, like we do now in such a situation, was unimaginable.
These 30 minutes by 30-minutes announcements were repeated about a dozen times. The train eventually arrived at Moradabad in the morning hour when it actually should have reached Ambala as per the schedule. I kept wondering why announcements were made in piecemeal of 30 minutes. Was the train at a distance coverable in 30 minutes at the time the first announcement of 30 minutes’ delay was made? There was no way for me to unravel the mystery in the pre-internet/ pre-digital era.
I was reminded of the Moradabad station incident while following the rescue mission undertaken in the wake of the Silkyara mishap. In November 2023, 41 workers were rescued from the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in India’s Uttarakhand district. The workers had been trapped for 17 days after the tunnel collapsed on November 12 due to a landslide. As we followed the news on media, it was reported from the beginning that the rescue operations were about to culminate. Eventually the rescue took seventeen days.
Very recently there were media reports about chaos at airports emanating from delayed flights due to dense fog in northern parts of India. Passengers were particularly exasperated because announcements for delay were made in piecemeal. Passengers were stranded in cabin – planes didn’t take off even after boarding of passengers had been completed. A few passengers were even trapped in an aerobridge.
Delays due to vicissitudes of weather are unavoidable. But such delays should be mitigated through timely and accurate communication. Passengers should not be left in the lurch. The time of delay should be meticulously estimated and communicated to the passengers. In cases of delays, the airline or railway staff should handle the passengers with extra politeness and empathy. Callousness and apathy only exacerbate the frustration of passengers already harried by uncertainty in expected time of departure of flight/ train.
