Late long-distance trains crowd Pune station platforms, leaving passengers stranded

Passengers travelling from Pune railway station are facing delays these days. Several long-distance trains are reaching Pune six to seven hours late. The effect is spreading like a chain, upsetting departure times as well as arrival times.

The crowd is heaviest during the station's busiest hours, between 5 pm and 7 pm and again from 10 pm to midnight. Late-running trains often arrive in these very hours. As a result, very little room is left for trains that are due to arrive on schedule.

Pune is the terminal station for many of these trains. After arriving, a train has to stay at the platform so that passengers can alight, other operational procedures can be completed and technical work can be done. A train occupies a platform for about 30 to 40 minutes. In peak hours, this makes it harder still to get a platform.

When platforms are not free, late-arriving trains may have to wait at the home signal or within the railway section until a platform becomes available. This holdup affects the entire timetable, and trains leaving Pune are not spared either.

The trains named in connection with the congestion include the Howrah-Pune Azad Hind Express, Jodhpur-Pune Express, Jammu Tawi-Pune Jhelum Express, Howrah-Pune Duronto Express and Chennai-Pune Express.

The situation shows how difficult it becomes to manage platforms when long-distance trains arrive much later than scheduled. For passengers, it means longer waits, disrupted onward journeys and no certainty about when their train will leave.

Better coordination between the arrival of late trains and the allotment of platforms could reduce the effect on other trains. This is all the more important during the evening and late-night rush hours at Pune station.