Hyderabad: Travel plans of more than 1.6 lakh people have been thrown into disarray over the past three days following the South Central Railway (SCR) being forced to cancel, partially cancel, and divert more than 300 of its services passing through Andhra Pradesh owing to the heavy rains and floods that have been ravaging the state over the past few days.
According to details released since November 19 by the SCR, between November 19 and 21, at least 203 train services have been cancelled, while 21 were partially cancelled, with another 80 services diverted.
The cancelled services alone affected travel of passengers from stations as varied as Chennai, Tirivanthapuram, Howrah, New Delhi, Silchar, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad.
Typically, a passenger train carries around 800 to 1,200 passengers, a SCR official said.
Even if one takes the lower end of the average passenger numbers per train service, the cancelled services alone would account for 1,62,400 people whose travel plans to and from various destinations serviced by the SCR, went awry because of the heavy rains and consequent floods in Andhra Pradesh, as well as in parts of Tamil Nadu. And if changes in travel plans of people on account of partial cancellation – short termination of services -, and diversions of trains are taken into account, the number of people whose travel plans were impacted by the heavy rains would be much higher, a SCR official said.
