The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Six-car rakes introduced between Tiruvanmiyur and Tirumayilai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 20, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Six-car rakes introduced between Tiruvanmiyur and Tirumayilai

By P. Oppili

The new six-car EMU coaches introduced in the MRTS Section on Wednesday. — Photo : N. Sridharan

CHENNAI, JAN. 19. The Southern Railway has introduced six-car rakes in the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS), between Beach-Tiruvanmiyur and Beach-Tirumayilai sections from Pongal day.

At present three six-car rakes are being operated in the Beach-Tirumayilai/Tiruvanmiyur sections. They shuttle between Beach-Tirumayilai/Tiruvanmiyur every hour.

Commuters feel that instead of operating six-car rakes during lean hours, the authorities should operate more six-car units during the morning and evening peak hours to reduce congestion. The existing skeletal services could not cater to the needs of commuters during the peak hours, conceded a senior railway officer.

A few passengers said that instead of using the six-car rakes in the Beach-Tirumayilai section, all the rakes should be operated between Beach and Tiruvanmiyur, as more commuters travelled on this section. After train services were extended up to Tiruvanmiyur last January, number of passengers increased considerably. The authorities used only three-car rakes in the Beach-Tiruvanmiyur section.

When the MRTS services were extended from Chepauk to Tirumayilai in 1997, nine-car rakes were operated.

At that time the number of commuters was good during morning and evening peak hours but lean during the rest of the day.

Subsequently, the authorities reduced the number of rakes from nine to three in May 2001.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu