The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : More unreserved coaches soon for Chennai Egmore-Mangalore Express

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

More unreserved coaches soon for Chennai Egmore-Mangalore Express

R.K. Radhakrishnan

Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy to flag off the train at Mahe today

CHENNAI: Southern Railway general manager Thomas Varghese has assured commuters that they would not be put to any difficulty owing to the discontinuation of the Tiruchi- Mangalore Link Express from January 3.

The Link Express is an important commuter train for people in north Kerala and also for those in the Tiruchi - Coimbatore section. "The complaint that we have received is that the new train does not have the same number of unreserved coaches. We have now decided to allow unreserved passengers to travel in sleeper compartments during the day at no extra cost," Mr. Varghese said. He said that the new train (6607/6608) had an additional 10 coaches and also had upper class accommodation. Apart from this, the Southern Railway was also considering increasing the number of unreserved coaches in the train, he said. The new train, the Chennai Egmore - Mangalore express, is the extension of an earlier train that was running between Chennai Egmore and Coimbatore via Tiruchi. It will run from Tiruchi to the timings of the Link Express.

Repeated representations

The need for this arose since there has been repeated representations from the Puducherry government and the people of Puducherry for a convenient train from Puducherry to Mahe in Kerala. So far, passengers from Puducherry had to travel to Chennai Egmore, make their way to Chennai Central and take the night Chennai - Mangalore Mail. The Southern Railway administration considered the demand for a more convenient arrangement and extended the Chennai Egmore - Coimbatore train to Mangalore. Since the Palghat - Mangalore section has heavy traffic, it was not possible to accommodate both the Link Express and the new extended train. Hence the decision to run them as the same train, Mr. Varghese explained.

Puducherry Chief Minister N.Rangasamy, will flag off the new train at Mahe on January 3. From that day, the Link express will be cancelled and many politicians have objected to this. Southern Railway officials have been explaining to them that the new train was much better than the existing train and that they were willing to address concerns of all sections. But the Link express could not be restored owing to traffic density in the stretch.

Once the service becomes operational, a passenger from Puducherry can travel to Villupuram on the Puducherry-Villupuram passenger and take the train to Mahe, instead of coming to Chennai and then boarding the Mangalore Mail.

Listing the benefits of the direct service, S. Anantharaman, Chief Passenger Transporation Manager, said that the distance of the journey has been reduced by 228 km; the fare is consequently lower by Rs.58 and transhipment from Chennai Egmore to Chennai Central has been avoided.

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