Chennai: Irked by Southern Railway’s announcement of cancelling fast local trains on Saturdays, commuters blocked a local EMU train at Tambaram railway station, on Saturday morning affecting the rail movement for more than an hour.
Nearly 800 passengers who were travelling in the train and waiting for the train blocked an EMU train heading to Chennai Beach from Thirumalpur that arrived Tambaram at 8.40 am.
According to police sources, an announcement of running the particular train as ordinary slow local had prompted the passengers to resort to the protest.
“Southern Railway has been operating a few fast local EMU trains between Chennai Beach - Tambaram, Thirumalpur and Kancheepuram on peak hours of weekdays. But the management, from last week, had cancelled fast locals on Saturdays. Private employees are suffering due to this,” a passenger said.
Following the protest, Tambaram station manager Srinivasan tried to pacify commuters and assured that the fast local trains would be operated from next Saturday. He also apprised passengers that engineering works in Egmore railway station is the reason behind the cancellation of fast locals.
Although the passengers initially remained unyielding, they called off the protest after issuing a warning of continuous protest from next week if the Southern Railway continues to cancel fast locals. Finally, the protest had ended at around 10 am.
Meanwhile, more than six local trains were stopped at various spots due to the protest and more than 10,000 passengers stranded.
