Indian Railways woes: Central Railway, Western Railway, Northern Railway, all fare poorly on this metric

Indian Railways is finding it difficult to maintain punctuality of long distance trains in almost all the zones and sections despite all its efforts. This fact has come to fore in the recent study of the Railways Board, Delhi. The board collected data on punctuality of long distance trains between August 3 and August 19, and after collating the statistics of all 69 divisions across 17 railway zones concluded that barring long distance Mail and Express trains on the Western Railway (WR), the scenario in other zones is dismal, said a DNA report.  
 
According to the report, Mumbaikars using the long distance Mail and Express trains on the Western Railway (WR) are enjoying better services if compared even to the Central Railway (CR). The Railway board on a broader scale reportedly found that all 17 zones are faring poorly in 2018-19, (between April-till now) as compared to the figures in 2017-18.
 
Considering train services within Mumbai city, the DNA report said that the WR is faring better than the Central Railways. City’s division of Western Railway is running long distance Mail and Express trains at 90.5 per cent in 2018-19, the figures stood at 97.6 per cent in 2017-18, said the report, adding that performance of train movement in August deteriorated to 92.6 per cent from 98.1 per cent.
 
Further, the report said the Central Railway’s city division ran at 67.8 per cent in 2017-18, but witnessed drop in train punctuality to 60.4 per cent in 2018-19. In the month of August, the CR reportedly had a better performance as trains ran with 72 per cent in 2018-19 as compared to 62.2 per cent last year. “Punctuality of trains are manipulative. Every zone have their own way of calculating it,” a retired official from the Railway Board reportedly said. 
 
The Northern Railway also fared poorly with trains running at 53.8 per cent which otherwise stood at 81.7 per cent in 2017-18, according to the data on punctuality, which reportedly cited a very dismal picture of the North Central Railway, based in Agra, as it stood last with 47.2 per cent.

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Stating details about the punctuality of trains between August 13 and August 19, the data reportedly said that city division of the Western Railway stands at the 6th position with 95.5 per cent, while the CR, with 72.3 per cent, is placed at 55th in the total 69 divisions.