Around 120 trains altered across Delhi Division from 11 to 13 September
Six Rajdhani services are diverted, southbound expresses are put back up to two hours, and suburban EMUs are cancelled outright. Northern Railway cites operational reasons.
Around 120 trains running through the Delhi Division are being cancelled, diverted, rescheduled or cut short between 11 and 13 September, with six Rajdhani services among them.
Northern Railway says the changes are being made for operational reasons. The list covers premium long-distance services and the suburban EMU network alike, and for passengers the practical effect is the same either way: a train that leaves from somewhere else, arrives somewhere else, or leaves two hours late.
What is changing, and in how many ways
The railway has not applied one blanket measure. Seven different kinds of change appear across the three days — cancellation, diversion, short origination, short termination, rescheduling, regulation and changes to terminal stations.
Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, chief public relations officer for Northern Railway, said that due to operational reasons some trains would be cancelled, diverted, short-terminated, short-originated, rescheduled, regulated or have their terminal stations changed between 11 and 13 September.
The distinction matters when you are holding a ticket. A cancelled train is obvious. A short-originated train still runs, but starts from a different station — so a passenger booked from New Delhi may need to reach Ghaziabad instead. A regulated train runs on time on paper but is held at signals en route.
The Rajdhani diversions
The clearest pattern on day one is that the eastbound Rajdhani fleet is being taken out of New Delhi by a different route. Six of them are diverted via New Delhi – Delhi Jn – Sahibabad rather than their usual path.
| Train | Service | Destination | Change on 11 Sept |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20840 | New Delhi–Ranchi Rajdhani | Ranchi | Diverted via Delhi Jn – Sahibabad |
| 12424 | Rajdhani Express | Dibrugarh | Diverted via Delhi Jn – Sahibabad |
| 12314 | New Delhi–Sealdah Rajdhani | Sealdah | Diverted via Delhi Jn – Sahibabad |
| 12306 | New Delhi–Howrah Rajdhani | Howrah Jn | Diverted via Delhi Jn – Sahibabad |
| 22812 | New Delhi–Bhubaneswar Rajdhani | Bhubaneswar | Diverted via Delhi Jn – Sahibabad |
| 12394 | Sampoorna Kranti Express | Rajendra Nagar Terminal | Diverted via Delhi Jn – Sahibabad |
Two Tejas Rajdhani services are being held rather than rerouted: the 12952 to Mumbai Central and the 12310 to Rajendra Nagar Terminal each have a late start of 50 minutes out of New Delhi.
The longer delays are on the southbound expresses
The heaviest rescheduling falls on trains heading south and west. The 12724 New Delhi–Hyderabad and the 12616 Grand Trunk Express to Chennai are each rescheduled by 120 minutes out of New Delhi. The 12926 Paschim Express is put back 90 minutes from Amritsar, and the 15304 Intercity Express to Kasganj by 75 minutes.
A two-hour reschedule is not a delay in the usual sense — it is a published change to the departure time, which means a passenger who arrives at the original time will wait, and a passenger who assumes a delay and arrives late may miss the train entirely.
The suburban network takes the cancellations
Where long-distance trains are diverted or held, the EMU services are simply removed. Among those cancelled on 11 September are the 64015 Palwal–Shakurbasti, the 64429 and 64433 from Ghaziabad to New Delhi, the 64492 New Delhi–Palwal Ladies Special and the 64491 from Delhi Jn to Shamli.
Several cancellations come in pairs, because a cancelled service strands the rake that was to form the return working. The 64492's cancellation takes the 64491 with it; cancelling the 64015 forces its link train, the 64910, to short-originate from Palwal.
Others are shortened rather than dropped. The 15307 Haryana Express to Sirsa short-originates from New Delhi rather than Tilak Bridge. The 64568 to Bulandshahr starts from Delhi Shahdara instead of Tilak Bridge, and its link working, the 64567, terminates at Delhi Shahdara rather than running through.
What the railway has not said
Northern Railway's stated reason is operational, and it has not published a further explanation. The three days it covers, 11 to 13 September, are the same three days for which Delhi Police have placed more than 35 roads under traffic control and the Airports Authority has restricted non-scheduled flights at Indira Gandhi International.
Passengers on affected services should check their train's status before travelling rather than relying on the booked timing, because rescheduling and short origination both change where and when a journey actually begins — and neither shows up as a cancellation in a booking app.
