KARACHI, July 29: The train network, connecting Karachi with the rest of the country, collapsed after torrential rains in the city and the interior of Sindh, however, the flight operations at the city airport, for international flights, remained normal, while domestic flights were delayed by 2 to 4 hours.

The railway schedule has been badly disturbed as the trains are arriving at the city and cantt stations some 6-15 hours late than their scheduled timings. The railway authorities have failed to respond to people’s inquiries about arrival and departure of the trains to and from the city.

The railway inquiry telephone lines remained busy at the city station as the operators allegedly switched off the private automatic branch exchange (PABX). The inquiry phone numbers (9206075, 9206576) at the cantt station had been allegedly disconnected, which added to people’s miseries as they were left with no other choice but to come all the way to the station to inquire about train timings.

A railway official told Dawn that the only phone at the cantt railway station had been given to the station manager, depriving the people of the facility to inquire the trains’ arrival and departure timings on a phone call.

He informed that the railway phone inquiry number — 117 — had 15 lines, but as the concerned people had been calling 117, the operators at the PABX switched it off or put the receiver aside to avoid answering calls and there was no one in the Railways department to take notice of public grievances.

Dawn repeatedly attempted to contact the Railways’ Divisional Superintendent Asrar Alvi but he was not available.

As the trains have been arriving late due to poor visibility and bad weather in the interior of Sindh and other areas of the country, their departure timings have also got disturbed, the railway officials said.

An intending passenger said: “I had to come to the station thrice to board Karakoram Express as the railway inquiry numbers were either busy or not responding. The train got late for many hours. Whenever I reached the station, I was told the train would arrive at the city in a couple of hours.”

The people, who came to receive their relatives at the stations, also had to faced problems due to trains getting late for many hours.

At the airport, the PIA’s international flight for Dubai got about three-and-a-half hours late. Another flight, en route Karachi-Quetta- Dubai, got late for more than two hours.

Domestic flights of the national flag carrier — Karachi-Turbat-Karachi, Karachi-Gwadar-Karachi, and Karachi-Sukkur-Karachi — were cancelled due to bad weather. However, Karachi-Quetta and Karachi-Lahore flights were two-and-a-half hours late.

A Dubai-bound flight of the Shaheen International Airline was delayed for five hours, while its domestic flights from Karachi to Lahore were also late for half an hour to an hour.