Women passengers allowed to travel during non-peak hours from Nov 23: Southern Railway

Chennai, Nov21(PTI): Southern Railway on Saturday said women passengers other than essential services staff would be allowed to travel in suburban train services during non-peak hours with effect from November 23. Southern Railway, in a press release, said, it has scaled up the number of suburban services in Chennai to 244 trains per day which were 40 percent to the pre-COVID/-19 levels aimed at serving the essential services staff of both government and other organisations.

Women passengers will now be allowed to travel in Chennai Suburban trains during non-peak hours from Monday to Saturday and to travel throughout the day on Sundays, a press release said. They will be allowed to travel before 7 am and after 1030 am till 4.30 pm and after 7.30 pm till 12 am Monday-Saturday.

They can use their season tickets for travelling or on purchase of single journey tickets. Children upto the age of 12 are also allowed to travel with them during non-peak hours. Southern Railway has appealed to the passengers to follow COVID-19 protocols including wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and to cooperate with railway employees for checking valid documents during their travel.

With effect from September 7, Southern Railway had announced the resumption of train services on select routes in Tamil Nadu in line with the state government lifting the COVID-19 lockdown induced suspension. In October, Southern Railway had resumed suburban train services only for essential staff to commute to and from work.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami had written to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal requesting him to grant permission to resume full-fledged operations of the suburban trains in Chennai in October.