The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Commuter protests lead to restoration of EMU trips

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 05, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Commuter protests lead to restoration of EMU trips

Special Correspondent

Opposing revision of train timings, they squat on the tracks

Arrival timings at wayside stations are changed
It is difficult for them even to get into the EMU

CHENNAI: Protests by commuters against the revision of suburban train timings have forced railway authorities to restore three EMU trips that were cancelled on July 1.

With a view to providing more “headway” between EMU services on the Chennai Beach-Arakkonam section, the authorities extended a few trips to the next major stations.

Select EMU services to Avadi, Tiruvallur and Arakkonam were extended to Tiruvallur, Arakkonam and Tiruttani respectively.

To facilitate the extension of the services, arrival timings at wayside stations were changed — which was opposed by commuters.

Opposing the changes, commuters in Korattur, Beach and Tambaram stations squatted on the tracks and blocked the movement of services on Monday.

At the Beach station, agitated commuters bound for Avadi staged a dharna from 8 p.m., which they withdrew after nearly three hours.

They charged that the administration had extended and changed the timings without giving proper notice to the commuters. Already EMU services during the rush hour were overcrowded. After the extension, it was difficult for them even to get into the EMU.

Railway authorities said they had extended only a few services to provide more trains to suburban passengers and more headway between two EMUs. This became necessary to meet the demands of commuters in the extended areas and to avoid bunching of EMUs during the rush hour.

To reintroduce services

They have decided to reintroduce the cancelled services from Wednesday.

The services will leave Avadi for Beach at 8.40 a.m. and 5.17 p.m. and from Beach for Tiruvallur at 7.50 p.m.

However, there was no change in the extension of a few services, the authorities added.

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