AGRA: North Central Railway (NCR) and South Central Railway (SCR) levied and collected Rs 11.17 crore from passengers as 'superfast' surcharges, but some of their superfast trains were delayed more than 95% times, said a CAG report tabled in Parliament on Friday.
According to the Railway Board, trains with average speed of 55 kmph or more come under the category of superfast trains.
A study of data on punctuality of superfast trains from 2013-14 to 2015-16 in NCR and SCR, however, revealed that such trains reached the destination late between 13.48% and 95.17%...
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of the days on which they ran. In total, 21 superfast trains were delayed on 3,000 days out of 16,804 days because they failed to attain the 'superfast' speed.
At present, there is no rule or policy to refund money if a train is delayed. Only when a person files a ticket deposit against reservation (TDR) against a train delayed for more than three hours is a refund possible.
According to the railways, 'superfast' surcharges vary for different class of coaches. For example, it is Rs 15 for general coaches, Rs 30 for sleeper, Rs 45 for AC (chair car, AC-3 economy, AC-3, AC-2 classes) and Rs 75 for AC First/Executive class which were effective from April 1, 2013.
Agra divisional commercial manager Sanchit Tyagi said, "There are scores of factors which lead to trains not achieving their superfast speed, thus causing delays. Some the prominent factors are the maintenance of tracks, signal glitches, emergency brakes and accidents which contribute in the late operations of railways."
Asked if the railways should not be returning passengers the so-called 'superfast' surcharges in such cases, Tyagi said, "There are no such rules or policy to refund money if a train is delayed, but when a passenger files a TDR (ticket deposit against reservation) against a train delayed for than three hours, then a refund is possible."
The study on the movement of some of the superfast trains between 2013 and 2016 revealed that Kolkata-Agra Cantt Superfast (SF in railway jargon) was late 138 days out of 145. Similarly, Jaipur-Allahabad SF was late 68.34% out of 578 days of operations between 2014 and 2016. Lucknow-Agra Cantt SF was late 58.99% out of 851 days, Chhatrapati Shivaji- Hyderabad SF was late on 682 days out of 1,055, Guntur-Secundrabad SF was late 41.33% out of 1,096 days. The least delayed train among 21 selected was Kathgodam-Kanpur SF, which reported 13.48% late out of 141 days.