If you are meant to be putting someone on a North Bengal train this weekend, or waiting at Sealdah to collect them, check the board before you leave the house. The New Farakka train cancellations have now run into a third straight day. Eastern Railway has issued a fresh list for journeys commencing on Saturday, September 5, and it is longer than Friday’s. It also takes off the one service that had been squeezing through on a diverted route.
Trains Cancelled for Journeys Commencing September 5
Services heading towards Sealdah and Kolkata station:
- 12344 Haldibari to Sealdah Darjeeling Mail
- 12378 New Alipurduar to Sealdah Padatik Express
- 13148 Bamanhat to Sealdah Uttarbanga Express
- 13150 Alipurduar to Sealdah Kanchankanya Express
- 13142 New Alipurduar to Sealdah Teesta Torsa Express
- 13116 Jalpaiguri Road to Sealdah Humsafar Express
- 13190 Balurghat to Sealdah Express
- 13146 Radhikapur to Kolkata Express
- 13160 Jogbani to Kolkata Express
- 13162 Balurghat to Kolkata Tebhaga Express
Services heading towards Howrah and Santragachi:
- 12346 Guwahati to Howrah Saraighat Express
- 13034 Katihar to Howrah Express
- 13054 Radhikapur to Howrah Kulik Express
- 13012 Malda Town to Howrah Intercity Express
- 08048 Naharlagun to Santragachi Special
One thing stands out about Saturday’s list. Almost every train on it is running towards Kolkata rather than away from it. That means the people affected are not only travellers holding tickets out of the city, but families in Kolkata expecting somebody to arrive from Siliguri, Alipurduar, Malda, Balurghat or Guwahati this weekend.
The One Train That Was Still Getting Through Is Now Off
On Thursday and Friday the up Uttarbanga Express was kept running by sending it the long way round, via Bandel, Katwa and Azimganj, before rejoining the route at New Farakka. It was the single exception in an otherwise blanket cancellation, and a lot of people rebooked onto it. The 13148 Bamanhat to Sealdah Uttarbanga Express now appears on the September 5 cancellation list, so that workaround is gone for the moment.
If you rebooked onto the Uttarbanga after your original train was cancelled earlier in the week, do not assume the new booking is safe. Check the PNR directly.
Why the Repair Has Taken This Long
The damage was spotted by patrolling gangmen in the early hours of Thursday, roughly 100 metres from New Farakka station on the Barharwa side, where about 20 metres of track had subsided after days of heavy rain. Eastern Railway brought in goods rakes loaded with stone chips from Jharkhand to shore up the formation, and around 150 workers have been on site.
The work then ran into two further problems. Soil on the bank of a pond beside the track slipped again, and an electric pole alongside the line began to tilt, which meant the overhead equipment had to be made safe before ballast could go down. That is why a repair that might normally take a day or two has stretched across the week, and why the railway has been issuing cancellations one day at a time instead of announcing a restoration date.
The wider problem is that the Howrah to Malda section is effectively the only high capacity route between Kolkata and North Bengal. Lose a short stretch of it and you lose the Darjeeling and Dooars traffic, the Malda and Balurghat traffic and a large part of the Assam bound long distance network at the same time. We covered the first two days of this disruption in our report on the September 4 cancellations, including both Vande Bharat services.
There Is Also a Separate Sealdah Block Tonight
Unrelated to New Farakka, Eastern Railway has a planned 420 minute traffic block at Sealdah running from midnight tonight through to 7 am on Sunday, September 6. A batch of local trains on the Habra, Barasat, Datta Pukur, Dankuni, Ranaghat and Kalyani Simanta routes has been cancelled outright for Sunday morning, and one long distance service has had its run cut short. If your Sunday plans involve an early suburban train out of Sealdah, our full list of the local trains cancelled on Sunday has the details.
What to Do if You Are Travelling This Weekend
- Check your PNR on the IRCTC app or the NTES site on the morning of travel, not the night before. Eastern Railway has been releasing these lists day by day.
- Cancelled train, e-ticket, automatic full refund. You do not need to file anything. Counter tickets have to be surrendered at a railway counter within the permitted window.
- Compare more than one bus operator before booking. Fares on the Kolkata to Siliguri overnight run have been marked up sharply this week, and state run services are often the more sensible option during a disruption like this.
- Flights to Bagdogra exist but capacity is thin and fares climb the moment rail traffic collapses, so price them early if that is your fallback.
- If your trip is not urgent, moving it by a few days is genuinely the easier choice. There is still no restoration date.
- If you are collecting someone at Sealdah or Howrah, confirm the train is actually running before you set out. Several arrivals into the city are on Saturday’s cancelled list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Darjeeling Mail running on September 5?
No. The 12344 Haldibari to Sealdah Darjeeling Mail is on the cancellation list for journeys commencing September 5.
Is the Uttarbanga Express still running on a diversion?
Not on September 5. The 13148 Bamanhat to Sealdah Uttarbanga Express, which had been running via Bandel, Katwa and Azimganj on the previous two days, has been cancelled for Saturday.
Why are these trains cancelled?
About 20 metres of track subsided near New Farakka station in Eastern Railway’s Malda division after sustained heavy rain. Since that section carries almost all Kolkata to North Bengal traffic, services are being cancelled rather than run over a compromised formation.
Will I get my money back?
Yes. When Indian Railways cancels a train, e-ticket holders get an automatic full refund with no application needed. Counter ticket holders must surrender the ticket at a railway counter.
When will normal services resume?
Eastern Railway has not announced a date. Fresh soil slippage next to the track and a tilting electric pole have slowed the repair, and cancellation lists are being issued one day at a time.
The Bottom Line
Three days in, the New Farakka repair is still fighting fresh ground movement, and Saturday’s list is the longest yet. The practical takeaway for Kolkata is that both directions are now affected, so this is no longer only about people leaving the city. Check the PNR on the morning of travel, take the automatic refund if your train is off, and price buses across two or three operators rather than accepting the first quote. We will keep updating as Eastern Railway releases each day’s list. For getting around inside the city in the meantime, our Kolkata local train guide to the Sealdah and Howrah lines covers the suburban network.
Sources: Eastern Railway press release on the New Farakka land subsidence cancellations as reported by ANI (4 September 2026), with the September 5 cancellation list cross checked against Asianet Newsable, and the background on the subsidence and repair work corroborated by earlier Eastern Railway briefings.
Featured image: a quiet Indian railway station platform, photo by Kishore V on Unsplash.
