Few days ago national survey for the Indian railway proved that trains that run for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh remain most delayed throughout the year. The average delay rate of the train for these two states is 61 minutes for Bihar and 56 minutes for Uttar Pradesh. But do you know the causes of delay of these train? This is what we are going to talk about on this blog.
Most of the train runs for Bihar or passes through the infamous Allahabad – Kanpur – Mughal Sarai corridor. Mostly these junctions are mainly the station where trains are mostly delayed. The reason behind delayed trains on this is, these junctions are handling more trains than their capacity. With the arrival of new trains each year, the situation is worsening.
The issue is caused by three factors
The train being delayed is nothing new for the Indian passengers. The issue with the Allahabad – Kanpur – Mughal Sarai route is that you are halted for long periods of time (and for many trains, at three consecutive stations).
Let’s look at the on-time performance of these three stations to see how problematic the delays are:
| Station Name | On-time Rank | Average Delay |
| Allahabad | 1009 | 75 mins |
| Kanpur | 998 | 69 mins |
| Mughal Sarai | 953 | 59 mins |
| AVERAGE | 68 mins |
Now you can see that there is an average at least 1 hour of delay on all three junctions. And this one hour frequently affects a train’s final journey time, particularly those going Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
On any given day, the Allahabad – Kanpur – Mughal Sarai route handles almost 500 long-distance trains. Apart from that, it is a significant freight route, with hundreds of freight carriages passing through. As a result, a delay in this belt has an impact across the country. Because this is the primary route for trains going for West Bengal and Bihar, a delay here might cause all trains in these two states to be stuck.
The first-come, the first-served policy applies
According to positive people train being delayed by an hour is okay, the train can manage the time. Well, it is not easy as it seems. It is not easy to make up for the time it has lost. There are usually more trains in India than available lines. As a result, in 80% of cases (with the exception of Premium, Superfast, Rajdhani, and Duronto), if you are delayed, the wait will only get longer due to a lack of free signals. This means that a 68-minute delay on the Allahabad – Kanpur – Mughal Sarai corridor can result in a more than 2-hour delay in your final train timetable.
Chaos During the holiday season
Every year, the Indian railway announces a big number of special trains for Diwali and Chhat Puja. This means that the Allahabad – Kanpur – Mughal Sarai corridor, which is already overburdened with passing-by trains, will be put under even more strain. As a result, typical train delays in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal may more than treble during the festival season.