Udhagamandalam: A 30-year-old handsome man from the United Kingdom and his 27-year-old pretty wife were the cynosure of all eyes when the Nilgiri Mountain Railway train stopped at the Coonoor Railway Station and later at the Ooty station on Friday. Station masters rushed to greet the beaming couple,
who were on a honeymoon trip.
To make the trip memorable, Graham William and Sylvia Plasic had chartered the train for a one-way trip from Mettupalayam by spending about Rs 2.50lakh. They were the first to use the chartered service after the Salem division of the Southern Railway relaunched it on Friday. The couple had hired the train through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
The train departed from Mettupalayam Station around 9.10am. Graham and Sylvia were the only passengers in the three-coach train, which had 143 seats. It chugged up the hill through 13 tunnels while the honeymooners experienced the serenity of the Blue Mountains. The journey lasted five-and-half hours.
While a oil-fired loco pulled the train from Mettupalayam to Coonoor, a diesel-fired loco was used from Coonoor to Ooty.
Divisional railway manager U Subbha Rao said the chartered train service is a promotional activity to boost the image of the mountain service across the globe. “Special charter train concept is very popular in north India during the wedding seasons. The regular NMR services will not be disturbed at any cost,” he told TOI.
Railway Board had approved Salem division to operate various train services in the section for promoting hill tourism and had introduced a charter train service with 120 seats from Mettupalayam to Ooty and back at a cost of about Rs 3lakh per round trip. However, advanced booking can also be done directly through the Salem divisional office. Direct booking could eliminate the service charges added by agencies like IRCTC.
Managing trustee of Heritage Steam Chariot Trust (HSCT) K Natarajan welcomed the service. “The railway had operated charted services in the NMR from 1997 to 2000. Later, special charted night services were run from 2002 to 2004,” he told TOI.
