Trains cancelled and flights grounded were the first visible transport toll of Cyclone Arnab, and three days after landfall the restart is still under way, governed by safety checks rather than passenger demand. The staged restart is frustrating for travellers, but it is the only safe way to reopen a network that was hit by wind, water and debris across a wide area. A train cannot run until its track is inspected, a flight cannot land until its runway and navigation aids are cleared, and a road cannot reopen until its bridges are checked.
The scale of the inspection task is what makes the restart slow. A cyclone does not damage a single line or a single airport. It damages a network, and the damage is often hidden: a track bed weakened by water, a signal cabinet flooded, a runway surface undermined. Each element must be checked in sequence, because a train that runs on an unchecked track risks a far worse outcome than a delayed train. The same logic applies to flights, where a single uncleared obstacle can close a runway even if the terminal is fully operational.
Why staged restarts feel unfair
Staged restarts feel unfair because they are uneven. One route reopens while a neighbouring route stays closed, one airport resumes flights while another remains shut, and passengers on the closed route see no reason why their service should wait. The reason is usually local: a bridge on one line, a flooded approach road at one airport, a power supply that has been restored in one district but not the next. Transport networks are only as strong as their weakest link, and a cyclone creates many weak links at once.
The inland phase of Arnab adds a further complication. Rivers rising hours after the rain can close a road or a rail line that was clear in the morning, which means a reopened route can close again. Officials have warned that the restart will be measured in days rather than hours, and that the first resumed service should not be treated as a sign that the whole network is back. That warning is worth heeding, because a premature return to normal service is how secondary accidents happen after a storm.
The passenger’s best course
For travellers, the practical advice is to check before travelling, to allow extra time, and to treat any resumed service as provisional. The transport toll of Arnab was counted in cancelled trains and grounded flights before landfall, and the restart count will be measured in inspected tracks, cleared runways and checked bridges. Each of those takes time, and none of them can be rushed without risk.
By the weekend, much of the network should be running again, though not all of it, and not necessarily on the normal timetable. The storm’s transport story will then shift from cancellation to recovery, and the measure of that recovery will not be how quickly services resumed but how safely they did.
