The stampede at New Delhi Railway station on February 15 that resulted in 18 deaths and left many injured was caused by a lethal combination of factors.

The causes included passengers being confused about the similarity of train names and the platforms, a pressing urgency to travel to Prayagraj for the once-in-a-lifetime Maha Kumbh Mela and the inability of railway officials to manage the swelling crowds at the station, witnesses said.

The stampede occurred between 9.30 pm and 10 pm on Saturday. Possibly contributing to the enormous crowd were the delays of at least 15 trains between 8.30 pm and 10.30 pm, data from the Indian Railways schedule shows.

As a result, passengers who were supposed to be on these trains had to wait at the station. The late arrival of one train resulted in disembarking passengers adding to the crowds.

Former railway manager Sarabjit Singh suggested that the delays led to trains being bunched together in a short period, causing the overcrowding.

Over three lakh people pass through Delhi station every day, he said. “It increases during the festive season,” said Singh. “The railway authorities do try to follow some precautions during festivals. But the capacity of our stations is not enough to handle the huge footfall.”

Headed to Prayagraj

The tragedy occurred when a crowd of pilgrims headed to the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj swelled on platform 14 and 15 and the connecting foot-over bridge, staircases and escalators between 9 pm and 10 pm, according to the Railway Police Force. These passengers aimed to board the Magadh Express, Prayagraj Express and the Swatantra Express.

Around that time, the Prayagraj Special, initially being scheduled for platform 12, was announced from platform number 16, according to a preliminary report by the Railway Police Force cited in The Indian Express. The crowd rushed there from platforms 12, 13, and 14 even as the police tried to clear the foot-over bridge, the report said

Looking at the schedule for the trains departing or arriving in the eight hours preceding the stampede on Saturday, Scroll found that 35 trains had been delayed. Between 8.30 pm and 10.30 pm, 15 trains were delayed. The delay ranged from a few minutes to a few hours, leading to a rising number of passengers waiting at the station.

The delays of the Shiv Ganga Express, Swatantra Express, Magadh Express, Uttar Kranti Express became crucial in adding to the crush. These trains arrived at platform number 12, 14 and 15 where the crowd had already intensified.

The Shiv Ganga Express that departs from platform 12 was delayed by 8 minutes, departing at 8.13 pm. It was on the same platform from which the railways had initially announced the special train for Prayagraj, according to the railway police. After the Shiv Ganga Express departed, pilgrims began to climb down to platform 12 to board the special train.

The Swatantra Express from New Delhi to Jaynagar was supposed to depart at 9.15 pm, but it was delayed by over 3 hours. It was also headed to Prayagraj.

The Magadh Express that was to leave from New Delhi’s platform number 14 at 9.05 pm for Prayagraj and Islampur was delayed by 13 minutes, inching close to the time when pilgrims began to gather at the same platform to board the Prayagraj Express scheduled to depart at 10.10 pm. The Prayagraj Express was delayed by seven minutes.

The Uttar Sampark Kranti from New Delhi’s platform 15 was delayed by 11 minutes. Its scheduled departure was at 8.50 pm, but it left at 9.01 pm.

The Lucknow Express was scheduled to depart from platform 16 at 10 pm, but that night it was delayed by 33 minutes. It was to depart from the same platform that the Prayagraj Special was later scheduled for.

When Scroll asked Himanshu Upadhyay, the chief public relations officer of Northern Railway, about the delays, he said that a high-level committee would “examine every relevant aspect of the unfortunate incident”.

“The inquiry by the committee is underway,” Upadhyay said. “No preliminary report has been given so far.”

Gathering crowds

At least five trains passed through New Delhi railway station en route to other destinations between 8.30 pm and 10.30 pm when the crowd was building and the stampede occurred. All of them had been delayed. Eight trains started from the New Delhi station in that period, of which six were delayed. Of the three trains that ended their journeys at the station, one was delayed.

In addition, there were other train departures outside this two-hour window that were delayed for a prolonged time. They included the Delhi Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express. It had been scheduled for 5 pm on Saturday but departed only at 2.49 am on Sunday.

The delays of the 15 trains in the two-hour period from 8.30 pm ranged from two minutes to as long as 9 hours and 49 minutes, according to data analysed by Scroll based on the trains’ running status.

The delays of some trains contributed to the crowds on the platforms and foot-over bridges when passengers were attempting to board trains between 9 pm and 10 pm.

For instance, the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani, which was supposed to depart at 5 pm, was delayed by nine hours and 49 minutes. Its passengers, too, had to wait at the station.

Railway officials have acknowledged that passengers were confused between the Prayagraj Express, scheduled to depart from platform 14, and the Prayagraj Special, which was supposed to depart from platform 16. However, despite selling 2,600 extra general tickets in the two-hour window before the stampede, the authorities did not deploy adequate numbers of staff to manage the crowd.

The former railway manager Sarabjit Singh said the authorities had planned to have holding areas at different levels in New Delhi station for arriving and departing passengers, just like in an airport.

“This would have decongested the crowd,” he said. “But the plan required a lot of infrastructure changes and remodelling.”

Passengers raised red flags

Even before the stampede, passengers had taken to social media to raise the alarm about the rising number of people at the railway station. Most trains bound for Prayagraj and eastward were scheduled at platform 12, 13, 14 and 15, leading to concentration of people over these platforms.

X user Jayesh Acharya raised an alarm over an overcrowded platform 12 a day before the tragedy. This happened after the Shiv Ganga Express scheduled for platform 14 was switched to platform 12, he said.

Across India, the railways had arranged 3,000 special trains for Maha Kumbh devotees since the festival began on January 13. But many have complained about inordinate delays and the lack of personnel to manage the huge crowds at the railway stations.

Following the stampede, in a bid to accommodate the massive influx of pilgrims, the Northern Railways announced four special trains from Delhi to Prayagraj on Monday.

But on Monday, complaints about special trains for Maha Kumbh continued. The SFG Kumbh Special from Old Delhi to Subedarganj was supposed to depart from Delhi by 9.30 am. The train was still in Delhi until midnight on Monday, late by over 14 hours.

The departure of Vande Bharat from Delhi to Varanasi was also delayed from 3 pm on Monday to 1 am on Tuesday.

Some passengers complained that operations were not up to the mark. Pilgrim Sachin Jaiswal took to Twitter to complain that a special Kumbh train from Phaphamau to Delhi had no electricity on Monday.

Passenger Mahesh Bisht also took to Twitter to complain about a direct special train from Delhi to Prayagraj on February 16. The train was running 17 hours late. “Children are crying for food,” Bisht appealed to the railways in his post.