Despite delays, Railways claims punctuality improved

Mumbai: Despite over 17,000 cancellations and over 85,600 local train delays, railway authorities of the Mumbai division have claimed that they were punctual last year.

Railway had to cancel over 17,700 train services while 85,600 train services ran late in the financial year 2016-17 owing to various reasons ranging from accidents to technical errors.

Still, both central and western railway trains fared better in terms of punctuality as compared to financial year 2015-16. As per data, CR in 2015-16 saw 78,636 delays with the number dipping to 68,504 in 2016-17.

Similarly, WR saw only 17,162 services delayed in 2016-17 as compared to 26,917 in 2015-16.

Officials said that the improvement in punctuality may be due to decisions taken last year including giving predominance to local trains over long distance ones.

An official said, “Around the same time last year, the railway board was extremely agitated at the fact that Mumbai suburban punctuality had witnessed a steep decline, hence the decision was taken that long-distance trains that were delayed and entered the city during peak time would be held back until running them did not disturb suburban traffic.”

Data further showed that one of the reasons for decrease in delays could be reduced trespassing and subsequent deaths as compared to last year.

In 2015-16, 4,292 WR services were delayed due to trespassing whereas in 2016-17, the number fell to 3,516. Meanwhile, on CR, the number of delays came down from 2,293 services to 1,646 services.

CR Ravindra Goel, said, “We have improved our punctuality than last year and it is our aim to keep improving the punctuality, in places where we still have some margins etc.” He added that the process would take time.