Toy train nothing more than a toy now!

Pramod Giri, HT, 13 June, SILIGURI: For four days now, the toy train, Darjeeling’s popular ride between the plains and the hills and a huge attraction among tourists is stuck in its tracks near Tindharia following a snag in the diesel engine that pulls it. Some of the coaches have also jumped rail, but no one seems bothered.

The result: all other train services between Siliguri and Darjeeling have been cancelled. All this at the peak of the tourist season and when the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway ( DHR) authorities and the UNESCO have signed an agreement to prepare a Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP) for the world heritage railways. 

Established in 1881, the DHR was accorded the UNESCO World Heritage status in 1999. Hopefully, the CCMP project will restore some of the lost glory of the toy train services. It aims to revamp the present management of the DHR and suggest remedies to what ails the train services: frequent breakdown and landslides that wash away whole tracks. 

On Friday, the diesel locomotive that pulls the heritage train broke down and repair services weren’t forthcoming. The passengers had to be pulled out and sent to Darjeeling by cars. Sanjeeb Bagdas, a 38-year old resident of Tindharia who earns his living by making and selling DHR steam locomotive models, said, “To desert the train midway, rather than repairing the engine or pulling the train to the workshop after the engine developed technical snag, clearly shows the apathy of the railways.