Passenger Entitled to Compensation After 9-Hour Train Delay, Rules Jharkhand Consumer Commission

For a passenger who starts his journey with a train ticket, the delay does not just mean waiting for a few minutes or hours. Sometimes, the whole plan goes haywire, important work is missed, and hours are spent at the station or in the train itself. If such a delay becomes very long and the railways is not able to give a concrete reason for it, can the passenger demand compensation? The decision of the Consumer Commission in a case of Jharkhand has brought this question into the limelight again. The case is dated 23 September 2024. Sanjay Kumar had booked two sleeper tickets in the'12871 Ispat Express'from Tatanagar to Sambalpur. The train was to leave Tatanagar at 10:18 am and reach Sambalpur at 3: 50 pm the same day. But the train did not reach the destination on time. He was 528 minutes or about 9 hours late in reaching Sambalpur. After this long delay, the passenger took legal action against the railways. Sanjay Kumar said that the long delay of 2024 was due to the mental, physical and legal problems faced by the senior manager of South Eastern Railway.