Rly station or waiting room!

Staff Reporter :
Sufferings of the train passengers have mounted in the recent days following a terrible schedule disruption between Dhaka and other destinations due to ongoing countrywide blockade programme.
Hundreds of people got stranded at Kamalapur and other railway stations across the country when the road communication was severely disrupted by frequent arson attacks and vandalism.
An official at the railway Information Center on Saturday said that some trains scheduled to arrive Friday night could not make it while those are scheduled to leave Saturday morning are delayed for an ‘indefinite time’. “Mahanagar Provati was scheduled to leave at 7:40am but the train left the station more than an hour late,” he said. The condition of other trains was also the same. All of the inter-city and mail trains have been running now behind the schedule.
The country’s fastest train – Subarna Express – even cannot maintain its schedule. The Station Manager also said short distance train like Dhaka-Narayanganj, Dhaka-Mymensing and Dhaka – Kishoreganj were also could not leave Dhaka station timely, official sources said.
Meanwhile, the helpless passengers were seen keeping their eyes on the screen to check their train schedule frequently.
 “It’s frustrating for me. I’m really in extreme trouble with my three-year-old girl and my wife,” Ali Akkas Chowdhury, a Comilla-bound passenger said.
Akkas who came from London just a couple of days back also said he does not have any option but to wait with uncertainty.
Sarwar Sumon, a former student of Rajshahi University, was waiting at the station along with a good number of his friends.
“We’ll go to our University to attend convocation. Our train, Padma Express, scheduled to leave Dhaka at 11:10pm, Friday, was rescheduled for 1:30pm Saturday,” he said. However, the train departed after 3:30pm.
Station Manager Sitangshu Chakraborty said that they were trying their best to normalise the train schedule.
He said the reason behind the delay was security check-up and reduced pace of the trains. “We’re calling it as delay what you see as schedule disruption. It’s improving gradually. We hope to be back on track after Biswa Ijtema.”
He said the authorities are giving priority to passenger safety, and trains are moving slowly to avert any unwanted incident. “We’re happy as the passengers are reaching their destinations safely….that’s enough for us.”