Train Scheduling Backlog Strands Hundreds At Kamalapur

Passengers embarking on the final day of the Eid holiday migration experienced substantial disruptions on Wednesday, 27 May 2026, as scheduling conflicts derailed the timetables of two major northbound train services. Hundreds of commuters bound for distant northern districts were left stranded at Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka for several hours, casting uncertainty over their holiday travel plans.

The primary disruption affected the Nilsagar Express, a vital broad-gauge intercity service connecting Dhaka to Chilahati. Despite an official departure time fixed for the early morning, the train failed to arrive at the platform on schedule, forcing passengers to wait indefinitely.

Affected Services and Technical Timetables

The disruption on Wednesday morning targeted two primary intercity services operating from the capital to the northern regions of Bangladesh. While the Nilsagar Express suffered an extended delay exceeding four hours, the Ekota Express, bounded for Panchagarh, faced a moderate schedule revision displayed on the station’s digital monitoring boards.

The verified scheduling discrepancies and operational parameters for the affected services are structured in the table below:

Passenger Accounts and Platform Conditions

The lengthy delays created challenging conditions at Kamalapur Railway Station, with the main platforms heavily congested with stranded holidaymakers. To secure a place on the train, many commuters had arrived at the terminal hours ahead of schedule, with some eventually falling asleep on the platform floors due to exhaustion.

Rabiul Islam, a commuter travelling to Domar in the Nilphamari District, had travelled from Narayanganj to reach Kamalapur Station by 04:00 am, anticipating high traffic on the highways.

“I deliberately avoided road transport to escape the seasonal highway traffic jams, assuming the train journey would offer a more reliable and comfortable alternative,” Islam stated. “Instead, I have been subjected to a severe logistical ordeal, waiting for more than four hours without any sign of the train.”

Similarly, Lima Akhter, travelling to Rangpur with her mother Salma Akhter, her husband Mominur Rahman, and her younger brother Siam, echoed these frustrations after also arriving from Narayanganj at 04:00 am.

“The level of suffering is quite significant,” Akhter observed. “The train has simply not arrived yet, and we remain entirely uncertain as to when our journey will commence.”

Official Management Response and Causal Factors

Md. Kabir Uddin, the Station Manager of Kamalapur Railway Station, provided an official clarification regarding the operational breakdown. He attributed the delays to a compounding backlog originating from the previous day’s operations, rather than structural defects within the station itself.

“On Tuesday, the Nilsagar Express departed Kamalapur with an initial delay of one and a half hours,” Station Manager Md. Kabir Uddin explained. “Furthermore, due to an extraordinary volume of holiday passengers boarding the train, the locomotive was forced to operate at a significantly reduced speed for safety reasons. This slower transit time extended the turnaround schedule, directly causing the severe delay today. Regarding the Ekota Express, we anticipate a manageable delay of approximately 30 to 35 minutes.”