Fog leads to Rs10 crore loss for Northern Railway in five days

Northern Railway has suffered losses to the tune of Rs10 crore during the first five days of this year alone due to repeated trains cancellations caused by dense fog.

On an average, tickets worth Rs 1.60 crore were refunded each of these days, a Northern Railway official said. The zone incurred a record loss of Rs3.35 crore on January 2, the day when two back to back train accidents between Allahabad and Delhi paralysed train services, the official said.

Now with 19 trains being temporarily cancelled till January 31 to cope with the situation, the figure is only expected to jump significantly in the coming days.

Train services took a hit right from the New Year day when foggy weather led to cancellation and rescheduling of over two dozen trains, with tickets worth Rs 1.62 crore being refunded at the counters, officials said.

Long queues were witnessed at the counters on the second day when the cancellation figure jumped to Rs 3.25 crore. On January 3, Northern railways refunded Rs 1.43 crore.

On January 4 and 5, Rs2.10 crore and Rs1.75 crore were refunded to the passengers.However, the zone could do little to prevent the losses. "Train cancellations have kept piling up from the New Year day eroding revenues during this rush season," the official said.

Northern Railways had announced several special trains this season to handle the winter rush and had extended the services of some of the existing special trains.

While bookings touched new highs during Christmas especially in AC coaches following steep hike in airline fares, the cancellations that followed has off-set some gains.

Northern Railway, which contributes the highest to the Railway coffers among all zones, has now cancelled leave and weekly off of all its commercial staff.