South Western Railways decided to add five more coaches to the Bangalore -Karwar Panchaganga Express which has resulted in a delay of about an hour in the train’s arrival at Bangalore and Karwar since June 13. The delayed arrival, particularly at Bengaluru, has affected regular office-going commuters
While the Panchaganga Express (train no. 16596) is scheduled to arrive at Yeshwanthpur at 6.43 a.m., it arrived late by 47 minutes, 1.34 hours, 1.10 hours, and 1.08 hours on June 13, 14, 15, and 16, respectively. Similarly, the train arrived late by 9 minutes, 13 minutes, 2.06 hours, and 1 hour at Karwar on these dates, against the scheduled arrival of 8.25 a.m.,
The timings of Panchaganga Express, which left Karwar at 6.00 p.m. and reached Yeshwanthpur at 6.43 a.m. and KSR Bengaluru at 7.15 a.m., were the reason the service became a big hit. After 7:00 a.m., the Yeshwanthpur-KSR Bangalore section becomes highly congested with the arrival of many trains from far-off places, including North Karnataka, resulting in delays to the Panchaganga Express.
Train no. 16595 and train no. 16596 crossed each other at Siribagilu on the Sakleshpur-Subrahmanya Road Ghat section when they had 14 coaches each. After adding five more coaches to compensate for the cancelled day trains in the section, the two trains were made to cross at Subrahmanya Road Station due to constraints at Siribagilu. The Bengaluru service was not designed to compensate for the delay between Hassan and Chikkabanavara, resulting in the delay.
