Taxi operators do brisk business as trains cancelled

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 10

The four-day rail roko by the farmers has brought cheers for the taxi operators in the railway station area, who have been doing a brisk business, ferrying passengers to their next destinations at exorbitant charges. 

Since most trains, including Swarn Shatabdi, are not proceeding to Amritsar and terminate at Jalandhar, all passengers heading towards the holy city have been choosing to hire a taxi from the stands outside. As soon as the train arrives at the station at 12:35 pm, the entire area outside the railway station gets choc-a-block with taxis of all hues charging anywhere from Rs 1,800 to Rs 4,000 for a one-side trip to Amritsar.

Most passengers, who are with family or on a business trip, do not go for the other option of hiring an auto-rickshaw to the bus stand and taking a Volvo bus from there for the remaining part of the journey, which costs them at least six times less, for the sake of convenience and management as they do not have much time. 

While an Indica is made available for Rs 1,800, an Innova costs Rs 3,000 and a Traveller comes for Rs 4,000 for the trip. The taxi operators do not bargain at all for there are more takers than the vehicles available. 

There are also many foreign tourists for Amritsar, who being unaware of the farmers' protest in Punjab, are left completely baffled on how to go about the trip ahead. Mereg, a Spaniard, who was travelling in Shatabdi today got down at Jalandhar, and was seen inquiring from the co-passengers if the railways would arrange for his remaining journey to Amritsar. Finding no alternative, he kept calling his tour operator to provide him with an alternative means to travel.

Sachin, a Delhiite, who too was on a trip with family, said, "We were not aware of any protests going on in Punjab and that the train would be stopped in between like this. Barely 15 minutes after the train left Delhi station it was announced that the train would stop at Jalandhar instead of going ahead to Amritsar. So, we had no option but to hire a Traveller."

Not just the taxi operators, even the buses have been doing a roaring business. The passengers commuting by trains daily have said that they had now switched over to buses for the last four days. "The rush at the bus stand has increased so much that there are hundreds of passengers waiting to board the Amritsar-bound buses. The buses that otherwise wait for 15 minutes to fill up now have to stop just for a minute and there are people rushing to board it," said Sarabjit, a lecturer at a Jalandhar college who commutes daily from Amritsar. 

Like the last three days, many trains including Shaan-e-Punjab and Dadar Express remained cancelled today. Meanwhile, a long queue was seen at the reservation counters of people seeking refund of the amount for tickets booked in trains that were subsequently cancelled.