Commuters a harried lot

LUDHIANA: Derailment of five coaches of a goods train inconvenienced commuters, with some waiting for hours at platforms for the arrival and departure of trains and others stranded on board. For them, it was also a hard struggle to get right information from inquiry counters, as even officials were uninformed.
As the derailment had taken place on the main line near Dhandhari Kalan railway station, rail traffic was hit.The authorities had to stop trains either at the city station or at the outer signals, which spelled hardships for commuters on board. Resultantly, some of the passengers took taxis and buses to reach their destinations.
Trains like Shatabdi Express, Sachkhand Express, Janshatabdi Express and Deluxe, among others, were affected. The authorities had to cancel Amritsar-New Delhi Super Fast Express, and Delhi-bound commuters were told to take other trains. Almost every train between Ludhiana and Amritsar was delayed for more than three to four hours and those running on longer routes faced over 10-hour delay. It was the worst situation for commuters travelling on e-tickets booked through the website of Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation because officials were reportedly not considering these for refund. However, railway officials said e-ticket money was automatically refunded in case of cancellation of trains, but commuters were running from pillar to post to get information.
"My train was stopped near Phagwara station and for two hours, it did not move. So, I took a bus to reach
my office in Ludhiana," said Manjeet, one of the commuters.
"We had to reach Delhi and then go to Mumbai for a business meeting, but Shatabdi had been standing at Ludhiana station for more than three hours, spoiling all our plans," said Avinash, another harried commuter.