Tribune News Service Amritsar August 23 Passengers especially senior citizens are irked over the Railways for ignoring their convenience in the wake of Covid restrictions. They complain that the Railways have withheld the concession on tickets for senior citizens stopped the pantry facility in compartments and despite charging tariff of express train the Amritsar-Pathankot Ravi train like a passenger one stops at all stations. A senior citizen Ranbir Singh said: “I travel to Hazur Sahib every year and the concession provided to us used to be a good financial support as sometimes I even go there twice.” This time upon inquiring he found that the facility was discontinued to avoid rush in compartments due to Covid. He said on the similar grounds pantry service in trains was also suspended. On return from the pilgrimage he stated that long route trains without pantry were inconvenient. He demanded that these services should be restored with immediate effect to benefit the passengers. A regular passenger Rajbir Singh said the Railways were charging the tariff of an express train for a passenger train. “It stops at all stations and yet its called an express train. Charging express tariff for it is not justified” he said. Officials of the department stated that all these matters pertain to the head office and they were gradually restoring each stalled facility in view of the subsiding Covid wave. Blockade: Railways refunds travellers The Ferozepur Division of the Railways has commenced refund of those passengers whose trains got cancelled in the wake of the rail blockade by farmers near Jalandhar. Around 12300 passengers whose trains were scheduled between 4 pm on August 20 till 11 am on August 23 will be refunded Rs 53.65 lakh. Meanwhile the blockade continued to inconvenience passengers and upset the time table of trains. Only three trains namely Dadar Frontier and Howrah Mail arrived and departed besides departure of a special parcel mail on the blocked Amritsar-Delhi rail line via detour on Monday. The Amritsar-Pathankot rail line which is free from any kind of blockade saw departure and arrival of three trains.

Stay updated with all the Amritsar Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.