It was the summer of 2015 , a very warm day in Bhopal , not the best day for railfanning either . It was 18th June 2015 , Friends I am here to tell you one of my worst train journey experience . A journey which I will never forget . So lets begin . . . .
17 June |
I had been in Bhopal for a couple of days for some urgent work . I was accompanied with my dad , we had stayed in a hotel near the railway station . For the return journey to Patna I had successfully booked a tatkal ticket in 11071 from Bhopal to Varanasi in AC 3 tier (though I had plans to deboard at Allahabad to catch 12149 Pune Patna Exp) and a sleeper class ticket from Allahabad to Patna in 12149 on 18th June .
All things were going fine ,
but at 12:00 hrs I smelled something bad is going to happen . I was at Bhopal Jn just for railfanning . I saw a train in old Rajdhani livery 12172 Haridwar LTT AC Exp is standing at Pf2 that too without a loco And the suddenly came Pushpak Exp from Itarsi end and the announcement said 12533 Lucknow Mumbai Pushpak Exp has arrived on Pf 3 . Totally surprised . I asked one passenger about where the train was going , he said the train is going to Mumbai and had returned from Obaidullagunj station and will take a different route . Then an announcement was made “ Itarsi RRI me bheeshan aag ke karan 12172 Haridwar Lokmanyatilak AC Exp ab parivartit marg Ujjain , Nagda , Ratlam hokar Lomanyatilak ko jayegi , Yatriyon ke is asuvidha ke liye hume khed hai “ . FIRE AT ITARSI RRI –this blew my mind , I hoped everything was ok till my tonight’s journey . Meanwhile 12172 departed after loco reversal and 12628 Karnatka Exp too returned from some station in BPL ET sec and arrived Bhopal Jn.
I returned to my hotel and turned on the TV , The fire at ET RRI was really massive and has destroyed the whole signalling system , there was also a news of diversion and cancellation of many trains . Meanwhile I checked the running status of my train on NTES , it showed that 11071 had departed LTT right time at 12:40 and was not diverted , this was a sigh of relief for me but I didn’t knew that a major problem is still to come .
At 15:00 hrs I got a press release from WCR which was posted at IRI that 11071 will be diverted via Jalgaon – Nagda – Nishatpura – Bina i.e it wont touch Bhopal Jn.
At 20:30 , while checking NTES again I got another shock , The NTES displayed 11071 has arrived Bhusaval at 20:22 delayed by 1 hr 12 mins and has been diverted via Jalgaon - Surat - Ujjain – Bhopal and will arrive Bhopal Jn at 08:30 next morning instead of its schedule time 02:35 . So we decided to stay in the hotel for this night .
18th June | The Journey Day
We were still unsure that if the train will come to Bhopal or not . Whom to trust – Press Release or NTES . So at 07:00 hrs I decided to go Bhopal Jn and ask at the enquiry . There was chaos all around station , there was a huge crowd gathered at enquiry . Many pax were waiting at the station since night & still were not able to get the correct information about their trains . Suddenly the display board flashed 11071 Kamayani Exp arrival at 08:30 on Pf 2 . I reconfirmed this info from the enquiry . At that moment it was sure that train will arrive at Bhopal .
Meanwhile the NTES update was still same “Arrived Bhusaval at 20:22 delayed by 1 hr 12 mins” , by selecting Bhopal or any other station it showed “waiting for update”
I rushed towards my hotel and checkout at 08:15 AM . We reached station at 08:30 and were waiting at the AC Waiting hall at Pf 1 .
Now , the indefinite wait starts . . . . . .
Back to back trains were coming form all three ends(Bina , Itarsi & Ujjain) . This was the day when I had the longest railfanning session though I was not much happy and bit worried too . Spotted infinite trains , took many snaps and videos .
Time was getting passed & I got no information about my train . The delay on the display board was kept on increasing. At 10:00 hrs the display board showed the train will arrive at 14:00 hrs .
At 14:30 hrs , when the display board was still showing arrival time 14:00 hrs , I went to enquiry to ask and the enquiry staff gave a strange reply “ Kamayani gum ho gayi hai “ . Had any enquiry officer said this statement in any station in Bihar he would have been beaten and thrown away by the public . I too had a very heated argument with him but try to stay calm .
At 15:00 hrs we had lunch in food plaza at Pf1 , the food was not bad but I was more worried about my train rather than food taste .
At 18:00 hrs , Diverted 12137 Mumbai Firozpur Punjab Mail arrived on Pf 3 from Ujjain side . Now the question was , Punjab Mail which departed CSTM at 19:40 has arrived BPL at 18:00 hrs via diverted route & Kamayani which departed LTT at 12:40 had still not arrived . Many questions were going in my mind – Has the train being cancelled or it would run via Nishatpura (as per press release) . At this moment I was very frustrated and my family members were worried too . I asked my bhaiya to look for an alternative . So my bhaiya booked tickets in 22911 Shipra Exp from Ujjain to Gaya in 2A , Bhopal timing 04:00 AM in morning next day, booking status was WL1 ,WL 2 . The Chart Prepared within 10 mins at 18:45 and the pnr ended up at RA1 41 & WL 1 . Approx 5000 Rs were wasted for just half a seat for 2 pax.
19:45
It was already long 12 hrs since I was waiting at this station and frustrated . I came out of the waiting hall to look for the retiring room . Just then when I came near the FOB I saw a train hauled by a WAP 4 is arriving on Pf 3 from Itarsi end and on the board it was written Lokmayatilak – Varanasi , just then an announcement was made 11071 Kamayani Exp has arrived on Pf 3 . I rushed towards the waiting hall to call Papa and take luggage and ran towards PF 3 , the train moved the moment we boarded in . At last we were in train . The train arrived by a delay of 17 hrs . 11071 was shown diverted by the press release & NTES but the co passengers said it was not diverted but was instead stranded long at every station it passed by . They also said that AC was not working and they had suffered very badly .
19th June | Pune Patna Exp
My train 11071 was already late by 17 hrs , I had almost thought I had missed my connecting train 12149 Pune Patna Exp from Allahabad . After deboarding ALD at 09:00 AM one coolie said that yesterdays Pune Patna hasn’t arrived , it was late by 14 hrs because of the same reason Itarsi fire .
12149 arrived ALD at 10:20 and departed at 11:15 . It was hauled by a MGS WAP 4 . We finally reached Patna Jn at 20:16 a delay of 16 hrs . The performance was very bad in NCR , took 5 hrs to cover ALD MGS sec and good run in ECR(East Central Railway) .
This journey is really unforgettable for me . .
Aftermath :
1. It took around 1 month for the construction of new RRI at Itarsi . Many trains were cancelled in that time period . The passengers had suffered a lot in that duration .
2. For my next journey from Patna to Bhopal , I had booked tickets in 11072 Kamayani Exp on 15th August 2015 , but the destiny had something else in store for me . On 4th August Kamayani Exp was derailed near Harda so it was cancelled for many days & so I had to cancel my ticket .
3. On 9th Feb 2016 i.e after 8 months I got refund on my Shipra tickets which my bhaiya had filled TDR for it . I had made several complaints on IRCTC , that’s why they had refunded the money
