Coimbatore: A week after TOI reported the plight of commuters struggling without the Coimbatore-Mettupalayam train, the railway board on Friday announced that the train will be operated from March 15.
The board has permitted operations of some mainline electric multiple unit (Memu) and diesel electric multiple unit (Demu) special trains with unreserved booking.
The Mettupalayam-Coimbatore Memu will run all days of the week, except Sundays, from March 15. The train will leave Mettupalayam at 8.20am to reach Coimbatore at 9.05pm. It would depart from Coimbatore at 5.55pm and reach Mettupalayam at 6.40pm.
However, it is not clear if the train will stop at Karamadai, Periyanaickenpalayam, Thudiyalur and Coimbatore North, before reaching Coimbatore Junction. “The stoppages are not clear yet. We will get more clarification over the next 48 hours,” said an operations officer in Salem division.
Regular commuters cheered the reintroduction of the train, which they believe is much faster, comfortable and cheaper. The stoppages are what makes the train useful, said K Ramakrishnan, a regular commuter. “Unless we have a morning train from Coimbatore that stops in Periyanaickenpalayam, hundreds of people from the city working at Lakshmi Machine Works and other industries in that belt and students of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya will not be able to take it,” he said.