The Rajpura-Patiala-Dhuri-LehraMohabat route seriously needed doubling, as the increase in traffic is causing mail exp and other passenger trains to wait for 15-25 mins for crossings at small stations in between, and ultimately it's the passengers who always suffer. Once I was travelling from UMB to PTA , the actual travel time is 1 hr at max stretch , but when the train reaches on RBR , it is usually made to stop at stations in between for crossing , and it takes 15-25mins extra. So, the train actually takes almost one and a half hour to reach Patiala. Sometimes, one to two freight trains are held up at either Daun Kalan or Kauli stations for crossing. The current traffic on this route is 45-50 trains per day as per the station staff. Today also the 54552 BTI UMB passenger, who's right time at PTA is 10:45 am, arrived at 12:15...
more... pm, and the 11057 LTT ASR is usually late by 2-3 hrs.