Tamil Nadu: More suburban trains to be run from Monday

CHENNAI: Southern Railway will be operating more suburban train services starting Monday and will consider resuming short distance passenger trains within the state. As demand for suburban travel is increasing, railways will be increasing suburban services by 90 per day and will also ensure that all stations will have functioning ticket counters.
Railways were operating 410 suburban trains per day on the three lines — Beach-Tambaram, Central-Tiruvallur and Central-Gummidipoondi. A few circular train services have also resumed. This has now been increased to 500 trains a day, which is 70% of the pre-Covid-19 frequency. The patronage is also good for peak hours and the numbers touch close to a lakh every day.
Railway board chairman V K Yadav, said at a press conference in Delhi, that more number of suburban services were being operated and that steps were being taken to resume short distance passenger trains in consultation with the state government.
A railway official said as of now there is no request from the state government to run unreserved specials or unreserved passenger trains.” Railways have a hesitation to resume the services as social distancing norms need to be enforced strictly.
The state government, however, wants railways to operate suburban trains as per the normal schedule. “The number of trains have been increased and trains will also be operated on routes that had no services due to poor patronage, Pattabiram Military Siding is an example. There will be halts in all stations and ticket counters at all stations will also be operated,” said a railway official.
The railway is not planning to open trains to all commuters but will do it gradually.
Nevertheless, weekday pattern of trains is going to be operated on Sundays following demand from commuters that suburban trains are popular for travel on some sections. Weekday workmen special schedule will be operated on December 27, Sunday. Several commuters, especially those who work in private companies, suffered on Friday as fewer suburban trains based on Sunday pattern were operated due to public holiday for Christmas.
R Baskar, a frequent commuter and former member of divisional rail users consultative committee, said many employees of private companies suffered due to this and those visiting relatives for Christmas were affected big time.