Trains from the North passing through Chennai to kerala are delayed by 4-5 hours almost daily and the Railways has accepted this as "we can do nothing about it syndrome". Reasons attributed during the winter are due to fog in North India, reasons attributed during the summer when the fog cannot be the reason are invariably due to chain pulling in the Bihar sector or some other infamous sector .

What is most unfortunate is that most of these trains pass through Chennai close to midnight and when there is a delay of 4-5 hours ( as it happens almost daily ) ; and the unfortunate traveller and his family are caught in the station without any decent place to sit ; since all sort of uncouth elements are also found in the waiting area and most of the floor area is taken by pasengers who are also waiting for delayed trains and are sleeping it off. Although the railways take the phone /mobile at the time of buying the ticket; train delays are never informed to passengers as in the case of airlines.

And even if the enlightened rail traveller calls to check the correct time of arrival ; these trains are always further delayed further to the delayed time informed and again it is a wait at the railways station. There is no 24 hr coffee shop since all the eateries close and then open by 5 am earliest.

There is no proper announcement for the delayed arrival nor does the display show the platform that the train is coming till the last few minutes resulting in an unnecessary scaramble on the platforms which are already cluttered up with cargo as if the platform is the place to keep all the cargo .

i AM WRITING THIS COMPLAINT SITTING IN THE TRAIN - THE INFAMOUS RAPTHISAGAR EXPRESS WHICH HAS STILL NOT REACHED COCHIN AT 6.45 PM AFTER A DELAYED STARTING FROM CHENNAI AT 5.30 AM INSTEAD OF 23.45 HRS - A GOOD 6 HOURS DELAY WHICH HAS BETTERED THE NORMAL 4-5 HOURS DELAY RECORD.
!!!

When the train finally comes ; there is no proper announcements and most of the announcements are not clear either..then you enter the train compartment ( in my case a IInd AC compartment and you are greeted with soiled bedsheets and pillows and equally bad blankets which the attendants are never bothered to replace before the train comes to the station.

Then after repeated reminders to the attendant to provide you with the bedsheets and pillow ; he may or may not come after a delay of one hour since he takes his own sweet time to dole out the sheets and pillows. I DIDN'T MENTION BLANKETS ; SINCE YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT GETTING FRESH BLANKETS SINCE THESE ARE NEVER WASHED FOR AGES AND CONSIDER YOURSELF VERY LUCKY IF YOU CAN GET A BLANKET WHICH DOES NOT STINK.

After that you have reached a point where you are trying to sleep at about 6.30 am when you feel the cockroaches crawling over your face or arms .... it doesn't matter whether it's the SEcond AC compartment , third Ac or sleeper... coackroaches rule the roost and pest control does not seem effective at all. In one of the journeys there was a rat and i did not open my mouth thinking I must have been seeing things.... till some other passengers also shouted it out - saying rat and the TTE gives a quizzical look as if the railways should provide other rodents for the comfortable sleep of their esteemed passengers.

I HAVE WRITTEN THIS IN SHEER FRUSTRATION AND AT THE SAME TIME KNOWING VERY WELL THAT NOTHING IS GOING TO COME OUT OF THIS COMPLAIN. IF THERE IS A RESPONSE, I WILL DEFINITELY FALL OFF MY CHAIR.

SO HERE GOES...

still I cannot foreget my courtesies and end wishing you all a very Happy New Year.!
M.K. AJIT KUMAR.