Reduction in electric train service: Passengers do not need other transport
Tamil Nadu: With the reduction of suburban electric train services due to maintenance work at Chennai Egmore Railway Station, passengers are reportedly reluctant to opt for other modes of transport offered by the railways.
Electric trains operate between Chennai Beach-Chengalpattu, Beach-Velachery, Tambaram-Kadakarai, Central Railway Station-Gummidipoondi, Thiruvallur, Kanchipuram, and Arakkonam. There are 125 electric train services from Chennai Central and 211 electric train services from Coastal Railway Station to Chengalpattu.
Officials say that 250,000 people travel daily on the Beach Station-Chengalpattu section and 60,000 on the Velachery section. Last year, Chennai Central Station alone reportedly handled 332.6 million passengers. Development work is underway at Egmore Railway Station. Due to this, electric trains are unable to operate on platform tracks 10 and 11. Electric trains arriving from Coastal Station are diverted via tracks 5 and 6 and are redirected back to the electric train tracks at Sethupattu. Consequently, electric trains are only stopping in the Egmore and Sethupattu station areas for more than 30 minutes.
To avoid this, the Coastal and Chengalpattu electric train service has been reduced to 115. Although officials had anticipated that the reduced service would reduce waiting times, results have been disappointing. Maintenance work at Egmore station has increased passenger waiting times at Park Nagar, Fort, and Tambaram stations. These three stations are often crowded because people working in Guindy, Secretariat, and the Central area use them.
Electric train passengers are reportedly not enthusiastic about other modes of transport, as bus journeys are longer and metro trains have to make frequent stops.
Kathivel, an employee of a private company, explained that the metro train fare is over 40 rupees. Furthermore, the journey time required to reach the destination is also longer due to the need for alternate journeys. He added that this is why electric train passengers are not particularly interested in the metro train.
