Shortage of trains trouble passengers.

kolkata: the diversion of some trains on the sealdah-ranahghat section to princep ghat recently has led to angry protests from passengers. on december 18, passengers held a demonstration at barrackpore and kharda stations when they heard that the down barrackpore local would go to princep ghat instead of sealdah station. passenger association convenor binoy mitra said against an average 20 per cent increase in passengers in the last two years, the number of trains had not increased.rather it had decreased in some cases. in the howrah division, the number of suberban trains was 132 in 1991. in 2001 it has gone down to 125. according to 1995-96 figures, the sealdah and howrah sections taken together had 811 trains for a track length of 611 km. howrah (south eastern) currently has 178 trains along a track length of 241 km. these taken together means 989 trains for 852 km. this gives 116 trains for a track length of 100km. compared to this, in mumbai there are 764 trains for a track length of 100km. added to this is the recent diversions to princep ghat. the up barrackpore local of 7:10 pm and the ranaghat local of 8:38 pm now start from princep ghat. the gede local at 7 pm too does not stop at belgharia, agarpara, sodepur or titagarh. hence people living in these populous places cannot avail of this train. this again leaves a gap of 45 minutes between the 7:20 pm krishnanagar local and the 8:05 pm ranaghat local. besides this, the electronic boards at sealdah station cause endless trouble for commuters. of late all that most of these boards are exhibiting is 'board on test', and 'happy new year'. but the good wishes are not going down well with passengers. on december 27, reaching the station at 6 pm, one found the time and platform numbers of the 5:40 pm barrackpore local and 5:50 pm shantipur local still exhibited on the board. the former would leave from platform 4, the board said, most passengers thought the trains were late. soon after, a train left from platform number three. it was the 5:58 pm barrackpore local. the only source of information was the board at the back of the train and a daily passenger's prior knowledge. announcments are also infrequent, leaving passengers groping in the dark.