Six inter-city trains taking passengers to Dhaka and Chittagong from Sylhet are gradually failing to deliver satisfactory services because of bad management, lack of supervision and prevalence of ticket scalping.
The trains - Upobon, Joyontica, Parabot, Kalni, Udoyon and Paharika – are operated by Bangladesh Railway.
Initially, the trains succeeded in attracting a large number of passengers because schedules were maintained and services were fine.
But services have turned worse now and passengers are barely interested in boarding the trains.
Joyontica and Upobon now have 11 carriages each, Parabot has 12, Kalni has 5, and both Paharika and Udoyon have 8.
Upobon, Paharika, Kalni and Udoyon had air-conditioned carriages but have now been removed from the last two. It has also been alleged that air-conditioners in Upobon and Paharika do not work properly.
Seeking anonymity, a railway official said the reason to remove the air-conditioned carriages was unknown, adding that locals should protest against it.
Manager of Sylhet Railway Station Abdur Razzak admitted that passengers suffered due to removal of air-conditioned and first-class carriages.
“We have already asked the higher authorities to add carriages considering the demand. At present, all six trains have a total of 55 carriages whereas the demand is 73,” he said.
Acute ticket crisis is another reason why the trains are losing passengers. Ticket touts, who charge several times more than the actual price of the ticket, also add to the misery of passengers
Twenty percent of the tickets are sold online by mobile phone operators but collecting tickets this way has also become very difficult.
Sources said both counter tickets and online tickets are collected by scalpers in large numbers, resulting in the crisis.
Yasin khan, who works for a private firm, said he had to travel to Dhaka on November 19 but could not find any ticket at the counter.
“At 7:30pm on November 18, I found four first-class tickets of Upobon Express online but after a while, those were gone. The situation is the result of mismanagement and a lack of supervision,” he added.
