JammuBeat — plug into the beat of Jammu

If you are catching a train out of Jammu on Tuesday morning, the door you have always walked through is no longer the door you want.

From 16 September, Jammu Tawi railway station is running a revised circulation plan while its rebuild continues. Everyone enters from the Platform No. 1 side. Everyone arriving into Jammu exits from the second side — the Narwal side. It is a straight swap of the habit most regular passengers have built up over years, and it takes effect with no phase-in.

For a student hauling a suitcase to a Delhi train, or anyone with twenty minutes of buffer and a platform to find, turning up on the wrong side is the difference between a relaxed boarding and a sprint.

Leaving Jammu? Enter from the Platform No. 1 side. This applies to all passengers, on all trains.

Arriving in Jammu? Exit from the second side, towards Narwal.

Meeting someone off a train? See the exception below — it probably applies to you.

Lost? Directional signage has been put up across the station. Follow it rather than muscle memory.

There is a single carve-out, and it is the one that matters most to families doing station pickups. In the Jammu Division's own wording: "In case a train arrives at Platform No. 1, family members and relatives accompanying passengers may also exit from the Platform No. 1 side."

In plain terms: if the train pulls into Platform 1, the people who came to receive you do not have to walk the length of the station to the Narwal side and back. If it pulls in anywhere else, they do.

This is a small mercy with real consequences at 6 am with luggage, and it is the detail most likely to get lost in the retelling. Worth forwarding to whoever is picking you up.