Tracking the Chennai’s journey

CHENNAI: In 2008, Arun Pandian was a teenager, travelling by suburban train every day from his home in Washermenpet in the north to his college in Avadi in the west of the city. "We would be given some pocket money everyday. For the train travel, my parents would give me Rs 107 for a monthly season pass," he recalls.
A decade later, Arun is married and works as an executive in an MNC in Porur and owns a sedan and a Bullet. But his daily commute is still by train and his monthly expenditure, thankfully has not kept pace with his rising status. The Washermenpet-Guindy monthly pass costs him Rs 114.

"All my family members have a season ticket," says Arun. Being a rail fan, he has travelled the length and breadth of the city on suburban trains. In 1999, he was one of the first to try out the MRTS trains up to his school in Mylapore.

It’s not the most comfortable commute, but the suburban train is probably the only mode of transport in today’s social-media driven world that allows for conversations with strangers face to face or just some stress-free time alone. Everyday nearly 11 lakh commuters travel through the railroads that crisscross the city.

The stories on the journeys are numerous and has changed over the years as has the view outside the window. During his college days, Arun and his friends would scramble to finish writing their record notes in the 30-minute commute. While returning, the discussions would be about cricket. "Now its more about the land rates in various parts of the city and which is the best place to invest or politics," says Arun. The passing of time hits him when a college student comes up to him and enquires about job vacancies in the city’s IT companies.

Arun has seen the cityscape transform, with fields and water bodies giving way to multistoreyed buildings. One can spot the overhead lines of metro rail while travelling southward from Mambalam. "The western side of Vyasarpadi station used to be completely dark and dangerous for anyone walking back home, in those days. Now it has proper lighting, with flats having come up. Near Ambattur, I’ve seen a house come up in the middle of the water body," Arun says. Unlike those days, one can no longer see the beach clearly, while travelling by the MRTS, as many buildings have come up.

With the conversations, a lot of the railway infrastructure and the travelling experience itself has changed. 2008 was the time of paper tickets and long queues at booking counters, today with the advent of smartphones railways gives the option of skipping the queue by booking a mobile ticket.

Pandian recalls how in 2008, the Chennai Beach-Tiruvallur and Chennai-Tambaram section had only six or nine car EMUs. Today, Southern Railway runs 12 car EMU on the section with a three phase technology which consumes lesser power. Inside the coaches, the seats have changed from wood to plastic and cushioned ones.

Vowing continued patronage, Arun hopes for airconditioned coaches and a more extensive network. "I hope railways extends suburban train services to Villupuram and Katpadi in the southern and western part of the state."