Train delayed by 8 hours: Entrepreneur to move consumer court over lost business

Kanhangad: A young engineer and entrepreneur from Kanhangad is gearing up to take the Indian Railways to the consumer court after an eight-hour train delay caused him significant financial and professional loss.

Suhas Krishnan, managing partner of the Kanhangad-based firm 'Next Watt' and a native of Mavungal, stated that despite the app showing exact schedules at the time of booking, passengers were kept completely in the dark until the very last minute.

The incident occurred on October 28 aboard the Mangaluru Junction–Mumbai CSMT Superfast Express. Suhas was traveling to Nashik to pitch and negotiate a prospective business project. The train was scheduled to leave Mangaluru Junction daily at 2 pm and reach Thane station in Mumbai by 3.20 am the following morning. Since the train originated from Mangaluru, Suhas arrived at the station an hour early. However, 2 pm came and went with no sign of the train. When he inquired at the information counter, the staff reportedly offered no helpful or courteous response. The train finally pulled into the station only at 5:30 pm, three and a half hours behind schedule.

To make matters worse, there were no public address announcements regarding its arrival. "It was pure luck that I was seated on Platform 3 and happened to spot the destination board on the coaches," Suhas recounted. "The train barely stopped for a minute before it started rolling again. I literally had to sprint and leap aboard."

The delays compounded along the route. The train finally reached Thane at 11.20 am the next day, eight hours late. Relying on the original 3:20 am arrival time, Suhas had booked a connecting train to Nashik three hours later. Missing that connection not only meant losing the ticket fare, but it also wrecked his planned business meeting.

Compounding his frustration was a bizarre technical glitch. While the Rail One app showed the departure and arrival times during the booking process, both the emailed ticket and the PDF copy downloaded from the portal displayed the timings as "Not Available".

Furthermore, because the train was an originating service, its live location was not tracked or updated on the app, leaving passengers stranded without any real-time information.

"I have suffered severe personal, professional, and financial setbacks, along with the humiliation of failing to maintain punctuality before clients," Suhas said.

"Had the railways given even a faint heads-up about the delay, I could have rescheduled the meeting or arranged alternative transport. Even the station master couldn't provide a straight answer. I am determined to approach the consumer court to hold them accountable," he added.