Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal seeking more trains to Kerala from destinations in other railway zones. The Southern Railway officials were diverting trains originally meant for Kerala to other states, he alleged in the letter sent on Saturday. The officials had taken a stand during the time table committee meeting of the Railway Board held in New Delhi that no new trains should be started to the state as there was no space available to accommodate new trains at Kerala stations, especially Thiruvananthapuram.
They were also diverting trains to Tamil Nadu, which were sought for Kerala. The train from Jabalpur which was actually meant for Thiruvananthapuram was diverted to Tirunelveli, he said. The committee also rejected the demand for a train from Lalkuan (Uttarakhand) to Thiruvananthapuram via Kottayam. The railway has also not introduced the proposed Lalkuan-Thiruvananthapuram express. The decision to increase the frequency of Kochuveli-Lokamanya Tilak express from once in a week to twice and that of Kochuveli-Bikaner express from once in a week to thrice has also been rejected by the time table committee, said Mr Vijayan. This was ignoring the fact that Keralites prefer trains for long- distance travel and that Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram are profit-making divisions.
