Chennai: With buses going out of bound ‘literally’ for middle class commuters, many bus passengers are turning to trains, which offer them timely and comfortable commute at a much lesser rate.
Owing to a sudden surge in the crowd, regular rail passengers urged the Southern Railway to increase the number of general coaches in many long distance trains.
Passengers pointed out that the cost of train tickets in reserved classes is much lesser than the deluxe bus fare.
“Chennai - Coimbatore train ticket costs Rs 315 in sleeper class. Although the earlier ticket fare in deluxe buses is quite higher than trains, many unreserved passengers preferred buses. But, according to the new revision, the bus fare to Coimbatore has surged up to Rs 632, double the train fare,” M. Ramesh Kumar of Coimbatore said.
Ramesh added that trains got overcrowded during the last couple of days. “General class tickets cost only one-fifth of new bus fare,” he said.
Meanwhile, regular rail passengers are demanding increase in the number of rakes in major trains to help ease overcrowded trains.
“If the number of unreserved coaches increased at major routes, the crowd would decrease,” Naina Masilamani, Arakkonam rail passenger association and DRUCC member said. Even though express trains can be augmented with 24 coaches, several trains don’t run with full capacity.
For instance, Chennai - Coimbatore intercity express has 23 coaches, Chennai - Tirupati Saptagiri express has 19 coaches and Yelagiri express has 23 coaches. Moreover, many southbound trains also have lesser number of rakes.
“Chennai - Coimbatore route is a much important as it covers six city corporations such as Chennai, Vellore, Salem, Tiruppur, Erode and Coimbatore. So, Southern Railway should add more coaches at the route. Each unreserved coach can accommodate more than 120 passengers. This will help in handling overcrowding following bus fare hike. Also, the railway should take steps to increase the number of suburban local trains in Chennai,” Masilamani urged.
