Chennai: Rail passengers, who reserved tickets on express trains, are left disappointed over Southern Railway's penchant for rescheduling trains at the last hour. “On many occasions, the Southern Railway is carrying out engineering works planned previously. Then why are they announcing rescheduling of trains a few hours before the commencement of the journey?” asked K. Baskar, a rail passenger.
Southern Railway had rescheduled Kovai Express and Shatabdi Express by more than 2 hours on Thursday, owing the engineering work at the Tirupur railway station. But some passengers received SMS alert regarding the rescheduling only on late hours of Wednesday.
Baskar said he had booked a ticket to travel in Kovai Express leaving Coimbatore at 2.55pm on Thursday. “The train had been rescheduled to 5.05pm. At the time when the trains reached Chennai Central at midnight, I would not able to get connecting EMU service to Tiruvallur. So I booked another ticket in another train,” he added.
However, the zonal railway officials maintained that the rescheduling of trains has been done according to the running of pairing trains, thus pre-announcement could not be possible.
When asked about rescheduling due to engineering works, which can be pre-planned, Divisional Railway Manager of Chennai Division Naveen Gulati said sometimes taking up of planned engineering works might be delayed. In such cases, the railway would send alerts well before the commencement of the journey, Naveen Gulati added.
Shatabdi express rescheduled
Chennai: Due to engineering works at Tiruppur railway station, Southern Railway has rescheduled Shatabdi express on Friday.
In a press release, the zonal railway said that Chennai Central – Coimbatore Shatabdi express, scheduled to leave Chennai Central at 7.15am on Friday has been rescheduled to leave Chennai Central at 08.15am.
