The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Southern Railway struggles to cope with traffic

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Monday, Sep 29, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Southern Railway struggles to cope with traffic

S. Vydhianathan

CHENNAI: Despite introducing new trains, augmenting coaches and operating special trains, Southern Railway is finding it difficult to meet the increasing passenger traffic.

In the last five years, the number of main line passengers increased from 192.27 million (2003-04) to 295.77 million, an increase of about 53 per cent. The zone introduced 67 new services, extended 37 services and increased the frequency of 16 trains.

But, line capacity constraints have made introduction of new trains difficult, says Chief Public Relations Officer Neenu Ittyerah. As the zone does not want to miss the opportunity of catering to the additional traffic, it has increased trailing load of mail/express trains. Between 2002 and 2007, on an average, 52 coaches were added permanently to various trains each year. During 2007-08, 178 coaches were added permanently. During weekends, festivals and block holidays, extra coaches were attached to various trains to meet the demands of passengers.

In the last financial year, 8,958 additional coaches were attached and from April to August 2008, 3,799 coaches were attached.

However, the continuous efforts to progressively increase the trailing load to maximum capacity have led to a situation where there is very little scope for day-to-day augmentation in future. The running of special trains has been another key factor in the growth strategy. The number of specials introduced over the years is: 1332 trains in 2004-05; 1543 in 2005-06; 1482 in 2006-07; and 2053 in the last financial year.

In the current year, so far 907 specials have been operated with another 52 planned during Ramzan and Dussera festivals. Efforts are being made to run these specials with 22 coaches. Specials, which used to be passenger services, have been progressively converted to express and superfast ones. They not only meet additional demands but also reduce the cost of coaching operations as they are run using ‘lie-over rakes’ and ‘traffic-spare coaches’.

Specials a great hit

Today, specials have become a great hit among passengers and are fully booked within a few hours of commencement of reservation, she says.

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