KARACHI, Feb 19: As trains arriving at and leaving Karachi remained affected on the second consecutive day, people at the Cantonment Railway Station having little hope of things improving due to the city’s law and order situation didn’t know where to turn and whom to complain to.

“Just this morning, it was announced that four trains, namely, the Pakistan Express, Allama Iqbal Express, Karakoram Express and Tezgam, would be reaching Landhi Station from where they would leave,” said an irritated member of a family waiting to receive their elders returning from Lahore on the Karakoram Express on Tuesday.

“We have been waiting here since 9am for our parents and aunt, who had left for Lahore after our grandmother’s demise there last week. They are all elderly people and we don’t want to leave them on their own at the station when they return, especially at a time when there is no public transport, too,” said Shazia Imtiaz, another member of the family.

A traveller on platform number one, Mohammad Jamil, said: “I’ve been waiting here since 12 noon for the Karakoram. I’ll wait till 4pm and then try to get a refund on my ticket and call my children awaiting my return in Lahore to inform them about the change in plan,” he added.

“Due to the city situation, we left early this morning from our place in Ram Swami for the Allama Iqbal Express, which was scheduled to leave at 2pm,” complained Liaquat Ali. “But it is yet to even reach here,” he added while expressing his disappointment. Another passenger, Mohammad Rafi, said: “My niece is getting married in Okara but it seems that we are going to miss the wedding as we just returned our tickets, each worth Rs1,080, for a full refund,” he said.

Raji Rabia said her uncle had been sick in Multan and she along with her family had been trying to get there by train since Saturday. “He died this morning and now we want to attend his funeral at least,” she said wiping off her tears.

Meanwhile, there was a chaos-like situation at the other side on the station where some travellers trying to return their tickets complained that they weren’t getting full refunds. “They are deducting Rs10 per Rs100. It is not fair at all,” complained Asghar Ali.

“I’ve been trying to catch a train to Sukkur since morning and lining up in various queues. For two hours, I stood in a queue only to be informed on my turn that I was in the wrong line,” said a passenger introducing himself as Shahbaz Nishan.

He added that he queued up in the other line and after three hours he was told there that all trains, scheduled to leave till 7.30pm, had been cancelled and the Sukkur Express and Khyber Mail, which were to leave at 10pm, were still tentative. “In this situation, I’ve decided to book a seat for Feb 21 but am getting no cooperation from anyone here at all as I’m told to line up again. Can’t they just put up a notice somewhere?” said the young man.

However, Karachi railway spokesperson Shoaib Adil said the railway management was refunding the tickets to the passengers without any deductions. “If any railway official is making deductions, the passengers should contact the high officials at the station so that action can be taken against the person concerned,” he said.

Responding to Dawn queries on Tuesday evening, he said that normally 17 trains left the city for upcountry on a daily basis but on Tuesday 15 trains were cancelled and the other two, namely Khyber Mail and Sukkur Express, were expected to leave the city late night.