THE EXTREME weather in the coastal cities of the country has badly disrupted road, rail and air communications of the country, effecting thousands commuters.Heavy rains and high velocity winds damaged the signals of the Pakistan Railways in Sindh, causing a major disorder in the schedule of all trains coming from Karachi. Trains from Karachi reached Lahore at least six hours and a maximum of 10 hours late. At the time of filing of this report, the Khyber Mail was seven hours late, Tez Rao was 5.5 hours late, Tez Gaam was nine hours late, Awam Express was five hours late, Karachi Exprress was 10 hours late, Farid Express was running 10 hours late whereas Korakaram Express arrived at Lahore Railway Station nine hours late.The Lahore Railways Station was packed with people trying to figure out when their family and friends would arrive. The Railway Inquiry Helpline as choked and getting through to an inquiry officer was impossible. The people present at the station complained about the apathetic attitude of the PR staff. They alleged that they had to come to the railways station just to get to know the time of arrival of trains as the inquiry officers purposely kept the helpline busy.When contacted, the PR spokesperson said the massive influx of inquiries choked the system and the possibility of an intentional negligence was out of question. He said it was true that the number of inquiry officers was not enough to cater to an emergency situation, therefore, people faced problems. He, however, said that a proposal for expansion of the inquiry staff was under consideration.Commenting on the delays, the spokesperson said the PR was working with all its available resources to mend the damage done to the signals system and the disruption in the train schedule would be removed as soon as possible. The road transport too was adversely affected by the storm as almost all the transport companies, operating between Lahore and Karachi, were forced to defer or reduce their operations due to the unpredictable weather conditions. Operation of the Daewoo Intercity Bus Service between Karachi and Lahore was cut down by half. A high official of the company said that one of the reasons for cutting down operation, apart from the probable weather hazard, was that the flux of passengers on the route had dropped to a record minimum. Therefore, the company could afford to operate with extremely low occupancy of its buses, he said. Air travel too was hit hard by the unfavourable weather conditions as the flight operations were hampered. The flight EK606 of the Emirates Airlines, which was travelling from Dubai to Karachi and then to Lahore, had to return to the UAE after it could not land in Karachi due to the adverse weather conditions. Flight PIA PK 315 left for Karachi five hours late due to the same reason whereas PK 624, and PK 356 too were could not follow their designated schedule subject to weather.