Thanks to the South Western Railway (SWR), the long-pending demand for introduction of an originating train from Vizag to Bengaluru was realised with the launch of the 06579 Yesvantapur-Visakhapatnam weekly special Tatkal express.
Though the East Coast Railway (ECoR) had failed to introduce a direct train to cater to the high demand for berths from Vizag to Bengaluru, it had taken over the special train, launched by the SWR in the past. After running it for sometime, it gave the most inconvenient timings, converted it into a Suvidha special with dynamic fare and finally did not renew it.
A software engineer from Bengaluru, Venky, says how popular the special Tatkal express is. “I had booked a bus ticket for Rs.2,500 to travel to Vizag for Deepavali and after seeing on Twitter that SWR was running a Tatkal Special, I cancelled my bus ticket and booked my ticket in the special train. By the time, I completed booking my ticket the availability position came down from 378 to 77 in just half-an-hour.”
“The train was delayed at the starting point itself in view of the late intimation to passengers. All the coaches were jam-packed within four hours after announcement of the train. The timings are very convenient not only to the people of Visakhapatnam but also to those from cities and towns in Andhra Pradesh.”
“During the course of interaction with fellow passengers, I came to know that many had cancelled their bus tickets and were travelling by this train. They all wanted that this train should be made a regular train. The next afternoon around 3.30 p.m., train reached Duvvada, from where the jurisdiction of ECoR starts.
“As SWR took up the mantle of the demands from Vizag, ECoR stopped this train several times and gave clearance to other trains, while our train was made to wait at the outer signal. Finally, our train reached PF no. 5 at 5 p.m. The disgusting acts of ECoR did not end there. They changed the ‘tatkal train’ to ‘Suvidha Special’ with dynamic fare in the return direction. While I paid Rs.650 (sleeper class) from Yesvantapur to Vizag, I found it was Rs.2,000 (sleeper class) in the return journey.”
“I feel that ECoR is playing all sorts of games to get this train cancelled on the plea that this train has no patronage. A new railway zone in AP with headquarters in Visakhapatnam is the only solution to end the injustice from ECoR,” says Venky.
The Railways do not seem to have learnt a lesson even after getting a spate of complaints on Twitter on the unclean coaches and other problems on trains originating/terminating in Visakhapatnam.
Barely a couple of weeks after passengers tweeted on untidy coaches in popular trains like Godavari and LTT express trains, a passenger who travelled by the S1 coach of Godavari express to Hyderabad on October 28, says there is no improvement in the situation.
“The wash basins, both in toilets and outside, were overflowing with water, barely a few hours after the train started from Vizag. One can imagine the plight of those who wish to wash their face or brush their teeth in the early hours,” says R.V. Koteswara Rao of Visakhapatnam.
“To add to our woes, there was no power in the toilets and there was no one to attend to the problems. Beggars were getting into the reserved coaches and travelling short distances and there was no one to check their entry,” he adds.
