The passengers are facing irritating hardships, as the foggy climate on railway tracks for different routes has kept causing major disturbances to the country's railway schedule on the third consecutive day on Monday. Hundreds of people were stuck at Cantt Station in complete uncertainty waiting for hours for the arrival of trains.
Some people were also going back to their home, as they had no expectation of the train's arrival in the next few hours. According to Kashif Yusufani, Divisional Commercial Officer (DCO) of Pakistan Railways (PR) Karachi, Pakistan Express was to arrive at 19.15 with the delay of over five hours.
Karakoram Express, which had the arrival time 15.30, was expected to reach Cantt Station at 19.00. Millat Express's expected timing of arrival with the delay of three hour was 19.30, while Tezgam was to arrive after seven hours delay. The other trains, including Karachi Express, Allama Iqbal Express, and Tezrao was to arrive at Cantt Station, with the delay of 7, 6 and 8 hours, respectively.
Interestingly, the delayed timings of different trains, informed by the DCO, was contradictory with the timing displayed on notice board at the information counter of Cantt Station. The people who were scheduled to travel by these trains were not informed about the delay and they were in great confusion as to whether they should wait or go back to their homes.
Ahmed Ali, who with his family was waiting for three hours at Cantt Station, told Business Recorder on Monday, that they had tried several time to contact the railway information centre before leaving home for station but there was nobody to receive the phone call and inform him about the situation. He said that even at the information counter the railway staff is ignorant about the exact arrival timings.
"We will lose seat and money if we go back to home as PR has no such system of informing the passengers on time, so we have no option but to wait till the arrival of train", a group of people intending to leave for Lahore, said. They said that they are unable to afford the losses of hundreds of rupees on hiring taxi, to go back home and come back again.
"Due to the weather condition in upcountry we cannot give a fix time to the passengers, as all trains are late, running very slow," an official at the station said. The arrival and departure timings of trains had been delayed for the last three days continuously due to fog and climatic change.