CHENNAI: Summer is here, heralding the start of the holiday season. Hundreds of travellers throng railway stations and the Koyambedu Central bus stand every day. If they have booked their tickets in advance, they are fortunate. Last-minute passengers will not have it so easy.

The Railways and the road transport corporations have introduced scores of special services to meet the rush. But they are just not enough.

`Maximum services'

Southern Railway is operating 270 special trains during the summer, including 42 pairs of service each to Nagercoil and Madurai, 38 pairs of trains to Thiruvananthapuram, 22 pairs each to Bangalore, Mangalore and 20 pairs of services each to Thuthukudi, Ajmer and Jodhpur. Apart from special trains, additional coaches are being attached to major trains. Totally, 6.35 lakh additional berths are provided to meet the summer rush. Despite this additional accommodation, berths in major trains are booked till the end of May. "We have been operating the maximum number of services," said a senior railway official.

Even though additional counters are being operated in all computer reservation centres, the crowds are heavy. It was unfortunate that passengers were not utilising the internet booking facility, perhaps because of the surcharge of Rs. 40 per ticket, said the official.

The ordeal of bus passengers is even worse, though the State-owned Express Transport Corporation is operating 14 special buses to Madurai, eight to Kumbakonam, six services to Tiruchi and five each to Salem, Hosur and Bangalore everyday. A corporation official said the rush was heavy during the weekend.

Resource crunch

Admitting that they could not match the convenience of omni buses, he said they could not press into service sophisticated services due to a resource crunch. A majority of buses were more than six years old. Meanwhile, omni buses have almost become a regular service in the State. On an average, about 500 buses ply to various destinations in the South. The omni bus operators charge at least 50 per cent more than train or bus fare. Even then, there is a heavy demand for seats.

Omni bus operators, however, justify the higher fare. The Government's annual tax hike for omni buses force them to pass on the burden to passengers. As competition is stiff, more comforts have to be provided to passengers, besides maintaining punctuality. Denying that they are fleecing the passengers, they say regular operators do not indulge in such "unhealthy practices." The fact that these services have a regular clientele is a proof of their popularity, they add.

One of the suggestions made by railway authorities to meet the growing demand is doubling the Chennai - Nagercoil BG line with the State partially financing the scheme. That would help increase the train services substantially, which in turn would ease the road traffic, they say.

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