I went on a tour from 20-10-10 to 7-11-10 to punjab from kolkata. Boarded 2311 Kalka mail on 20-10-10 there was rush as usual but strange was lot of unauthorised travelers were in the coach, half the way people kept on getting in and out there was no RPF to check the safety in the night. Train was late for around 1 hr reaching at Delhi.
Travelled across in nearby states and found most of the trains were running late, on asking was replied very carelessly that trains are not supposed to match our timing, they run on their own time!.
On returning Boarded 2380 WB sampark Kranti on 7-11-10 from ambala(UMB), and it was a horrible experience of life time, I was travelling with two small kids. Train was before time at Ambala, TTE came and Checked the tickets just as Train left Ambala and it was the last time we saw a railway personal in the coach. from Delhi all the gates of S-2 Coach along with S-1 and S-3 and the toilets were blocked with luggage. There was just no one to look in to the situation. My Berth no. was 49 and 50, on all other seats there were two person per seat and most astonishing was on berth no. 55 there were 8 railway trainee drivers travelling to Kanpur. The place was worst than journal compartment. The empty berths were being taken by passengers with running tickets and passengers on RAC were waiting for the TTE to come and allot them the respective seats.The train reached 4 hrs late then the shcedule at Sealdah.
Is this the Service being provide to the normal citizen who book the tickets in advance in proper manner.
It is a shame on the system, when complained to a TTE in Mughal Sarai on platform he deliberatly said that do what ever you want to do there is no solution to this.