This is not just special but VERY VERY SPECIAL. Departed yesterday from Delhi 3 hrs 15 mns late at 22.35 instead of 19.10 hrs. Departed from Allahabad today 9hrs 8 mns late at 13.08 hrs instead of 4 am. My estimate is that it will reach HWH sometime tomorrow morning instead of at 17.20 hrs this evening, say about 12 hours late, although trainenquiry.com shows ETA Howrah as 23.13 hrs today.

The Delhi-Patna Special took 45hrs to reach Patna.
Very common with so called Special services.

Really. That is news to me Vishwanath. Dont you think that it merits a mention in the GUINESS BOOK :)

I think most SPL trains face this problem,

Special treatment. Once a SF special (I was on board) stood for nearly 3 hours just before its destination (7 km away).

Not in the Guinness book; rather in Hopeless book

Rush will be cleared. People will be able to reach destination, but when; nobody knows!

sir, most special trains run on trunk routes....and u know the congestion..and between these conjested routes these trains are embedded just like passengers in unreserved coaches....and these trains get less priority than the regular trains..hence they are made to stop here and there just like freight trains.....once i was stuck in an special train with no water in the toilets....and during morning time lots of passengers were suffering from the problem of "natural calls".....you can just imagine the scene

Excerpts from same news:bit.ly/rB3Amk
"Narrating his nightmarish experience, Rajiv Kamal told TOI that he had faced a lot of difficulty while travelling in the sleeper bogie of the special train from Sarai Rohilla (Delhi) to Patna Junction last week. Though the train left Sarai Rohilla at 11 pm, it took almost 48 hours to reach Patna Junction. Besides, there was no light, water and other amenities available on the train causing immense hardship to passengers, he said."