Passengers sleep in rail compartments at Kamalapur Railway Station on Saturday as they lay idle following disruptions to departure and arrival schedules, caused by derailment of six coaches of Panchagarh Express on Friday. — FE Photo by Asad-Uz-Zaman Train schedule of the country continued to fail for the second consecutive day on Saturday as most of the trains left Kamalapur Railway Station two to five hours later leaving hundreds of passengers including children and aged people to suffer at the station for long time.
Train movement from the central train station was severely disrupted at 12.15 pm on Friday due to derailment of six coaches of Panchagar Express at the station that damaged the automatic signaling system.
Eight hours later, the Bangladesh Railway (BR) restored the service through single line.
However, the BR restored both line and signaling system on Saturday afternoon and expressed hope to normalise the train service by today (Sunday).
Railway Secretary Abdul Baki along with Bangladesh Railway Director General Sardar Sahadat Ali visited the station and assured the passengers of quick restoration of the normal train services.
However, BR cancelled four intercity and two local trains' schedule on Saturday.
Two-way train services of intercity Joyantika Express on Dhaka-Sylhet route and Agnibina Express services on Dhaka-Tarakandi route and Turag Commuter on Dhaka Joydevpur route were cancelled till filing this report.
Visiting Kamalapur Railway Station, the FE correspondent found that many passengers including elderly people, women and children were waiting for five to six hours at least due to delay and many others left the station for alternative transport returning tickets.
"I am waiting here (station) for a long time. As if there is no end to our sufferings," Md Mominul, a Rangpur Express passenger told the FE in afternoon at the station.
Rangpur Express was scheduled to depart from Kamalapur Railway Station at 9:10 am (Saturday) but it was not leaving until around 2:00 pm (Saturday).
According to sources at the Kamalapur station, 10 trains of different routes left the station from morning to 12:00 noon (Saturday).
Of the trains, only two departed on scheduled time but eight others departed at least two to five hours later than their original schedule time (for departure).
Kamalapur Railway Station Manager Md Masud Sarwar admitted that the passengers continued to suffer due to the train service disruption as it has forced them to operate the train service manually.
He said after resumption of some automatic signalling system, train operation from both sides of some routes normally.
Total 39 pair trains or 78 intercity trains and 24 pairs or 48 commuter and mail trains run from the Kamalapur station every day.
Till 3pm, 12 trains left the station. Of them, Silkcity Express on Dhaka-Rajshahi route was six hours behind the schedule and Upakul Express on Dhaka-Noakhali route and Kaloni Express on Dhaka-Sylhet route were two hours behind the schedule.
Station Master Mohammad Anwar Hossain told the FE at 8pm that no more train services were cancelled but operated late.
He also assured that the train movement would be normal today (Sunday).
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