DHR evening service loses steam

SNS, 1 May 2019, Siliguri : The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) has discontinued its evening service, thanks to the lack of passengers.The heritage DHR had restarted the evening Toy Train ride between Siliguri and Rongtong (around 17km) on 16 December last year.
Railway officials say that there used to be such an evening service earlier too, while it stowed in 1999. "Back then, the train services were used by local passengers to transport goods" a railway official said.
The evening service was the first of the many activities planned by the DHR to celebrate 20 years of its heritage status. Run by the steam low, the service had two coaches -one with dining facility-with seating capacity of 12 and a general coach for 17 passengers.
According to DHR officials, the train left Siliguri at 3pm and reached Rongtong at 3.55 pm. It stopped at Sukna for tourists to visit the DHR museum there, while it halted at Rongtong for around 25 minutes during which the passengers could get down at the small station and take a stroll. The train left Rongtong station at 4.20 pm and reached Siliguri Junction at 5.50pm. A round-trip fare for the journey in first class was Rs 1,000 and those who wanted to enjoy on-board refreshments, in the dining car, would have to part with Rs 1,200.
DHR director M K Narzary said that the services had to be stopped as the turnout of passengers was less, and that additionally the election also contributed to the service flopping.
"The evening services were halted after it failed to get good response from passengers, and moreover from the month of April elections were held in different phases.Our staff members are on leave to exercise their franchise, as this is something we cannot stop. All these contributed to the service failing to pick pace. The services will, however, resume once we start getting good response from the people," said Mr Narzary.
Asked about the revision in the fares,Mr Narzary said, "'We have not thought about it, as of now the fares will not be revised."