Palwal-Delhi shuttle trains are being monitored for 10 days after repeated delays disrupted daily travel for commuters from Palwal, Faridabad and Ballabgarh, with railway officials tasked with identifying the operational causes.
The monitoring exercise has been assigned to the station superintendents at Palwal and Faridabad railway stations. They are recording the scheduled and actual arrival and departure times of shuttle services, along with the operational obstacles affecting their movement. A report will be submitted to senior railway authorities after the 10-day exercise.
According to the report, Faridabad station superintendent D.S. Bhandari and Palwal station superintendent A.K. Singh have been given responsibility for tracking services on the Delhi-Palwal section. The Palwal superintendent is monitoring shuttle 64077, while the Faridabad superintendent is monitoring women’s special shuttle 64492. Railway sources said several complaints about these trains had reached the department.
The corridor carries large numbers of passengers travelling daily for employment, business and education. Commuters from Palwal, Ballabgarh and Faridabad depend on shuttle services to reach Delhi and return home, making punctuality particularly important during the morning and evening peak periods.
Passengers quoted in the report said delays had become frequent enough to affect their arrival at their destinations. Some commuters have also submitted complaints to the railway minister and the Railway Board through social media. They said that travelling the roughly 30 to 60-kilometre distance between New Delhi, Faridabad and Palwal could take between two and four hours when services were delayed.
The most serious delays were reported on evening services travelling from Delhi towards Palwal. Commuters identified services 64082, 64906 and 64910, the second Mathura shuttle, as among the most affected. According to the passenger accounts cited in the report, these trains have been delayed by between one and five hours on different occasions.
Records cited in the report show that shuttle 64082 ran more than an hour late during each of the previous three days. Service 64906 was delayed by two to three hours, while service 64910, the second Mathura shuttle, reportedly ran four to five hours late over the same period.
The railway monitoring exercise is intended to establish the actual pattern and causes of the delays. The station superintendents’ report will provide senior officials with a 10-day record of train movements and the disruptions observed on the route.
