DEHRA DUN, the capital of UTTARAKHAND, NEEDS BETTER SERVICES.
I am a resident of Dehra Dun, a frequent user of railway services and wish to make the following suggestions for their improvement, since all trains serving this place are slow and pathetic, particularly the one to the country’s commercial capital. It may be noted that these ideas can easily be implemented without making any budgetary provisions.
1. 19019/19020 Dehra Dun Mumbai Expresss needs to be speeded up. This grand old train is pitifully slow compared...
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to all others on the Indian Railways network, being slower than even the passengers between Dehra Dun and Delhi. It is suggested that 19019 is speeded up by about four hours between Mumbai and Nizamuddin crossing Delhi area at around 1:30 A.M. to reach Dehra Dun around 9:30 A.M. Saharanpur and Laksar should be skipped, if possible. In the reverse direction 19020 should depart from Dehra Dun around 7:00 P.M., passing Delhi area around 3:00 A.M. The timings at Bandra Terminus remaining unchanged.
2. 12171/12172 LTT Hardwar A.C. Express similarly needs to be speeded up and extended up to Dehra Dun. This can be done by advancing the departure of 12171 from LTT to 7:00 A.M., increasing its MSP up to Rajdhani/Shatabdi speeds so that it passes Delhi area at around 4:00 A.M. reaching Dehra Dun at around 10:00 A.M. Likewise, 12172 can depart from Dehra Dun at 5:30 P.M. and follow Shatabdi crossing Delhi area around midnight and arriving at LTT at around 8:00 P.M.
3. 14041/14042 Mussoorie Express should also be speeded up by about two hours and also extended to run upto Delhi Cantt instead of Sarai Rohilla.
4. Dehra Dun railway station is equipped to handle short trains only. Older trains overcome this constraint by shedding and attaching some coaches at Hardwar. It is, however, noticed that newer trains (some introduce over two decades ago) do not follow this and run on short rakes throughout their journeys which puts a severe capacity constraint on them. It is suggested that all other trains also add and detach extra coaches at Hardwar, particularly since these trains are running up to as far as Trivandrum which is some 3500 kms away.
5. While the speed between Dehra Dun and Laksar cannot be increased because of the track being single and also passing through Rajaji National Park, steps should be taken to increase the speeds reduce the number of stoppages of all trains servicing Dehra Dun as all of them are very slow compared to the other express trains running in the country.
It is requested to consider and implement these suggestions immediately since the only thing that needs to be done is some adjustment in the schedule of services that already exist. If effected, these recommendations will surely bring cheer to the people of Dehra Dun.
the above has been forwarded to the Union Minister for Railways and Chairman Railway Board. Comments and suggestions are solicited from the users of this board.
RAJIVE SINGH