(This story originally appeared in on Apr 23, 2016)

12 coaches brought in from yards at Byculla, CST, Wadi Bunder, Dadar and Mazgaon were cobbled together.

The railways, known for frustrating delays and absurdly slow decision-making, cobbled together a 'special' train in a matter of hours on Friday after complaints about of lack of services from Mumbai to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar reached a minister.The Central Railway (CR), which originally had no spare rakes, scrounged for disused coaches at CST, Wadi Bunder, Mazgaon, Byculla, and Dadar rail yards and assembled a 12-car train that departed for Gorakhpur late on Friday night.But like most railway undertakings, the operation had its share of problems: most of the coaches were in a poor condition and needed urgent repairs. When this Mirror reporter visited the Mazgaon yard at 10.30 pm, an hour before the scheduled departure, coaches were still being cleaned, and defunct fans were being fixed.The particular Mumbai-Gorakhpur service, which didn't exist until Friday, was run after minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha received angry complaints that there were hardly any special trains from Mumbai to UP and Bihar at a time when the wedding season was at a peak in the two states.Sinha received reports from BJP workers about a large number of passengers from north India sleeping on platforms at Mumbai stations in their long wait for seats on existing services.At 10.30 am on Friday, Sinha called officials of the Railway Board demanding a special service to UP and Bihar. He said the train should depart on Friday night itself.Around 2 pm, CR's Mumbai division got the orders. Two hours later, officials at Mazgaon were asked to look for vacant coaches lying at various yards and ensure that the train leaves CST for Gorakhpur at 11.30 pm.Four coaches were pulled from Byculla yard, and two each from CST, Mazgaon, Wadi Bunder and Dadar. Twentyfive rail employees were involved in the clean-up and repairs."Immediately after I received the complaints, I asked the Railway Board officers to arrange for a special service for Friday," Sinha told Mirror. "I have also asked them to run one reserved service to Varanasi on Saturday and a general service to Patna on Sunday."CR public relations officer Narendra Patil said late on Friday night that 84 special summer trains to Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Patna would be now run.