Ballari Jn - Look around and enjoy the station. A sacred place where Mahatma Gandhi once spent 8 hours. - Vishwanath Joshi

Article in yesterday's Deccan Herald (17-Feb) highlighting the inconvenience faced by passengers and low level occupancy after change in timings. The triweekly Garib Rath train from Yeshwantpur to Secunderabad has been advanced by almost six hours. The advancement has resulted in a very thin booking rate and the occupancy has slipped from an average of 70 per cent to 40 per cent.
While the passengers blame the South Western Railways (SWR) for the unfriendly timings, sources in the Railways attribute the reason behind the change to a former railway minister. The former minister wanted another triweekly, the Yeshwantpur-Bidar Express, to run seven days a week. As the Bidar train timings clashed with the Garib Rath train, the schedule was changed.
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say that despite opposition from the SWR and South Central Railway officials, the Railway Board at its meeting decided to change the timings of the Garib Rath to accommodate the Bidar train on three more days a week.the new schedule is inconvenient. Professionals will have to take a half-day leave to catch the train at 1.30 pm. The arrival time is also odd as the train reaches its destination at 4 am.
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