Railway travellers enjoy comfortable return after Eid holidays

People travelling by train are returning to Dhaka with relative ease at the end of the Eid-ul-Azha holidays. Trains departing the capital were also crowded, but both incoming and outgoing services were largely free of complaints.

All trains coming to the Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka were packed with passengers on Tuesday as offices began to reopen after a three-day holiday.

Imam Hossain Rana, a passenger on the inter-city Subarna Express train from Chattogram, said he had left Dhaka three days before Eid. He returned to the capital after the holidays.

"The passengers usually don't suffer much on Chattogram-bound trains. But the trains were very crowded before Eid. My return journey was smooth though. The train was crowd-free and reached the station on time."

The schedule for north-bound trains went haywire before the Eid holidays. The delays left holidaymakers reeling under the sweltering heat. Some trains ran 12 hours behind schedule.

But the experience was 'completely different' during the return trip, said Fazle Rabbi, a passenger on the Banalata Express who came back to Dhaka from Chapainawabganj.

"Everyone knows what happened before Eid. Almost all trains were late and overcrowded. But the return journeys were comfortable."

"I had to fight to get on the train before Eid but it was much easier to return to the capital. The journey was quite comfortable," said Gopal Barman, a Chemistry Department student of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University in Gopalganj, who travelled from Mymensingh on a Jamalpur commuter train.

The trains departing the Kamalapur station for different destinations were brimming with passengers on Tuesday. People also lined up at the counters to buy advance and regular train tickets.

Mohammad Moniruzzaman Milon, who runs a clothing store in Dhaka's Dhanmondi, was one of them. He could not travel to his village in Dinajpur before Eid due to business commitments and the travel rush. He came to the station to buy train tickets on Tuesday.

"I couldn't travel during the Eid holidays. It was difficult to get advance bus or train tickets due to the rush. Traffic congestion was also a big issue as my wife can't travel by bus. That's why we have decided to travel by train."