On the first day of its commercial run in Kashmir, hundreds of commuters traveled in rail today between various stations from Budgam to Anantnag. The train chugged off from Budgam at 7.25 A.M. with 300 passengers on board who were excited to have the first experience of rail travel in the Valley. Another 400 commuters boarded the train to Anantnag on its journey back. The number of passengers kept swelling as the train touched the next stations. By the time it arrived in Srinagar, there was no vacant seat available in the 588-seat capacity train and a large number of passengers had to travel while keeping standing. The train left the Anantnag station at 9.18 A.M. and arrived at Budgam at 10.50 A.M.
The passengers – men, women and children – were highly enthusiastic about being among the first commercial passengers of the train that had been eagerly waited to run through the landscape of Kashmir. Many spoke about the joy and ecstasy they felt on being part of the history in making.
Manzoor Ahmad of Budgam who was the first to alight from the train at Wanpoh, Anantnag station said that he considered himself to be very lucky for being the first passenger to have alighted at the end of the first commercial run of the train in Kashmir. He was one of the 450 passengers who alighted from the 8 coaches at Wanpoh as the train completed the maiden commercial run. In the second run of the day, 465 passengers alighted at Anantnag while 370 boarded the train there.
Chief Area Manager, Srinagar Mr. P. K. Gupta said that the rail service has reduced the travel time for commuters by more than half. "On the top of it", he said, "It is more comfortable than road travel". He said that from Anantnag to Budgam train took only one hour and six minutes whereas by road the time of travel is two and a half hours. The passengers agree with him and also like the heating arrangements in the bogies. Riaz Ahmad of Nogam said that he had waited long for this momentous day to arrive and felt on cloud 9 to be on board the first commercial service. Gupta believes that the enthusiasm shown by the people was more than he had expected.
Going by the excitement it has generated among the local people, the train in the Valley is likely to be a major attraction and a preferred mode of public transport within Kashmir. As the travel by train is more comfortable and less time consuming than road travel, the number of rail commuters in the Valley is bound to considerably increase in the times to come. After all, who does not want to avoid being caught up in a traffic jam, especially when one has to reach office or home in time?