In last 8 yrs, Flights increased in Kolkata-Chennai route by 50 %. To facilitate business of CCU-MAA Flights, IR delibately & intentionally gave bad, worse & worst Timetable to Howrah/Shalimar bound trains from Chennai/TPTY/GNT. See timings of 12840(arr. 23.00 @ HWH) , 12664 & 12666(arr. 23.55 @ HWH) 12868(arr. 23.25 @ HWH), 18048(arr. 23.20 @ SHM), 22826(arr. 23.55 @ SHM), 22856( arr. 23.10 @ SRC), etc. trains. This has become a massive inconvenience to Passengers arriving at nearly 12 midnight hour in Howrah. Lack of Transportation from HWH station from 00.15 hrs to 04.00 hrs is becoming very worrisome to passengers. Passengers of SDAH main & South suburban are left stranded in HWH station as they can't reach KNJ, STB, RHA, Gede, BNJ, HNB, DH, NMKA, CG from HWH station, after arriving during 22.45 to 00.15 hrs. (Special mention, 11447 arriving at 22.40 hrs at HWH is also causing problem to... more...
passengers). Shifting out 12841/42 from HWH to SHM has dealt a massive blow to Kolkata -Chennai train passengers s Coromandel Express is most important train in Kolkata - Chennai Railway line.
Coromondel is a Daily train and Howrah-Puri Shatabdi is also a Daily train with nearby arrival and departure time from howrah with few hrs difference. So, only if HWH-Puri SHBTD is shifted to Shalimar then only Coromondel exp can be shifted back to HWH keeping load same on HWH platforms. HWH-YPR and HWH-TPTY Humsafars r not daily trains, so notrequired to be shifted to SHM
I am nowadays advising those who can afford to take flight to kolkata. As for myself, always travelled by train only by MAS-HWH mail, TPJ-HWH, Coromandel or other trains. In future may prefer flights if these inconvenient timings are not changed.
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