Kochi: The railways are finally following up on a long awaited promise of operating more passenger trains, mostly in Central Kerala, for which a stock taking exercise has been initiated.
“We’ve been looking to operate more passenger trains and also increase the capacity of existing ones. This is to facilitate the withdrawal of stops of Express and Superfast class trains and also to discourage season ticket holders from getting into reserved coaches.
We have initiated a stock taking exercise to determine availability of coaches, which is expected to get over by the end of this month,” said Senior Divisional Commercial Manager V.C. Sudheesh said.
Recently, the issue was brought up by the railway passenger association at a meeting with top railways officers including Sudheesh and Ernakulam Area Manager Rajesh Chandran.
The stock taking exercise includes taking into account the total number of coaches available in all divisions under the Chennai headquarters and the corresponding demand. This would facilitate relocation of coaches as per demand, the Area Manager said.
The railways are planning to operate more trains similar to suburban operations in the Palakkad-Thrissur-Ernakulam, Ernakulam Kottayam and Kollam-Thiruvananthapuram sections.
“At the meet held on Thursday last, railway officials said they would give priority to the running of passenger trains including MEMU services.
A list of the new services will be prepared after studies in advance so as to include them in the next budget. We have also requested a change of timings of passenger trains like the Ernakulam Guruvayur train for the convenience of office goers,” said Paul K J Manvettom, President of All Kerala Railway Users Association.
