No, the trains didn’t lose their way but the Railways did  

• Train which left Vasai Road station in Mumbai for Gorakhpur in UP, reached Rourkela in Odisha.

• Another train from Bengaluru headed for Basti in UP ended up in Ghaziabad near Delhi

• A train left Patna for Mumbai but reached Purulia in West Bengal

• A train that left Kurla for Varanasi reached its destination on the fourth day. It used to be a 24-hour journey.

Ravish Chand Yadav was in the KurlaVaranasi train and was quoted as saying that no food was available. Children were crying and though Yadav tweeted the issue to the Railways, no help was forthcoming. Yadav’s ailing uncle died during the journey.

Railways conceded that some of the trains were diverted to other routes because of congestion. A majority of the Shramik Special trains were headed towards Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, explained the Railway Board chairman, and had to be re-routed. Railway spokesmen also claimed that the diversions happened on the first two or three days.

That there was failure of both coordination and communication is clear. Railways is one of the few efficient public services in the country and meticulous planning goes into its operations. Officials could not have been ignorant of the number of trains, number of passengers and their destination and the route. They would have known these details long before the trains embarked on the journey.

Somebody somewhere would have goofed up because it is not possible that the Railways woke up to the congestion suddenly, six or eight hours after the trains left. They would have calibrated the speed of the trains, the intervals at which each train had to leave and the stations in-between where food and water were to be distributed and new crews were to take over. And if they knew that a 24-hour journey would take 96 hours, there was no reason for not letting the passengers know.

The alibi offered by the Railways is that there being no communication system between the Guard, driver and the coaches, no announcement could be made. But surely Railway staff could have moved from coach to coach, at some station or the other, to give passengers the good news? Or perhaps the Railways could have tweeted the information about diversion of routes?

While technically the engine drivers cannot divert the trains to even the next track— guided as the trains are by traffic systems— and while different sets of crews take over the trains along the route after every few hours—these explanations are of little consolation to the passengers who suffered.

As many as 80 of them are reported to have died during the journey. Several pregnant women delivered babies in the trains with little or no medical help. Hungry passengers ransacked kiosks at several railway stations, looting water bottles and packets of biscuits and namkeen snacks.

Finally, rather than focusing on fast trains, bullet trains and making railway stations like airport lounges, the Railway Minister could devote some time to improving communication in running trains, between, say, the passengers and the Guard? With mobile telephony and smart phones, this surely is not rocket science?