Catch Me If You Can: First Hurdle Is Getting To Train, Not Boarding It
New Delhi: New Delhi Railway Station isn't just one of the busiest in the country, it is also a perennial traffic chokepoint that every railway passenger must navigate, especially during the morning and afternoon rush hours.
Whether arriving via the Ajmeri Gate or the Paharganj side, passengers face severe congestion from 5 am to 6 am and from 3pm to 5 pm. Many are forced to disembark hundreds of metres from the station and drag heavy luggage down uneven roads, flanked by encroaching vendors and aggressive hawkers. The chaos has become a daily ritual, one that no traveller is spared.
The consequences go beyond inconvenience. Peak-hour traffic delays can and do result in passengers missing trains.
New Delhi Railway Station, popularly known as NDLS, is situated in the heart of the capital. It sees a daily footfall of 5 lakh. Nearly 400 trains arrive at and depart from its platforms. Multiple trains depart from New Delhi in the early hours. Chandigarh-bound trains include Vande Bharat departing at 8am, Kalka Shatabdi at 7.40am and Sampark Kranti at 6.25am. During the same period, trains to Lucknow start their journey, including Shatabdi Express at 6.10am.
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Jaipur-bound trains like Ajmer Shatabdi depart at 6.10am. Mumbai-bound Punjab Mail starts at 5.10am.
Two Vande Bharat trains go to Ambala Cant — one at 6am, the other at 5.50am. Similarly, Swarn Shatabdi goes at 7.20am. Mahananda Express heading towards Patna also goes around same time.
TOI, which took a look at the chaos on Paharganj side of the station early one morning, found a predictable long queues of cars, autorickshaws and cabs on State Entry Road and Chelmsford Road.
It was chaos in every direction. Passengers had to get off their vehicles at least a kilometre from the station and walk to the entrance. Almost always, cab drivers refuse to drive passengers too close to the station because they know they will get stuck. Sanjeev, who drives an Uber cab, said: "Every time we agree to drop a customer right in front of the entry, we end up losing 30-45 minutes in traffic. This delay means that we miss out on a lot of rides, so we only accommodate such requests when customers are carrying a lot of luggage, or if one of them is a senior citizen.
We usually charge extra for doing that."
An auto driver, who has been taking passengers at Paharganj entry for the last 12 years, said "Sometimes, the traffic pile-up starts as early as 4.30 in the morning. By 5.15, you can see this huge line of autos and cars, extending across the road. Passengers get off and run for their trains."
Usman, a porter who has been working at the station for close to 15 years, said: "The congestion peaks from 5-6am and 3-5 pm.
Porters end up having to go where all the cabs and cars are parked on the roads to get customers. It gets difficult for us as well to have to carry all that luggage from so far."
To make matters worse, vendors had put up stalls right on the road, eating into the space of an already choked road.
A passenger who came from Greater Kailash in southeast Delhi said he almost missed his 6.20am train to Kathgodam because of the traffic, "I was stuck in traffic on Chelmsford Road for almost 30 minutes.
I decided to just take my suitcase and run to the station." Harsh Marwaha, a tourist from Ludhiana, said: "Despite my hotel only being five minutes away from the station. I always end up having to make the walk from the end of the road because of all the traffic.
I have visited Delhi numerous times. This is a common occurrence. How difficult it must be for senior citizens and those with physical disabilities!"
Auto drivers presented a different argument.
Mohammed Azhar, an auto driver, said the traffic "seems very scary and chaotic, but it is always moving. It only gets stagnant when you get closer to the entry gate, when some of the cabs and cars start entering the station, instead of just dropping people outside".
Chaos and congestion around a station lead to delays and these can lead to tragedies. In Delhi, boarding or alighting from moving trains has taken 216 lives and injured 93 people in 27 months.
One of the main reasons passengers end up taking such risks is due to delays in entering the station.
A traffic police official said: "Our officers start duty at 4.30am and stay on duty until the night to manage traffic flow. There are recommendations for the creation of a footbridge all the way to the station entry to avoid jaywalking and manage traffic flow. A request has been made to the civic agency to remove encroachments, and if possible, the route should be avoided by DTC buses."
A railway official shed more light on how the utility tackles the increased footfall and congestion during peak hours, but he was unable to account much for the traffic and chaos outside the station. "The traffic outside the station is monitored by Government Railway Police and state police," he said.
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