Commuters at Guindy Railway Station have urged the Southern Railway to open more ticket counters on the eastern (Race Course Road) and western (Anna Salai or Kathipara Road) sides of the station.
During peak hours, serpentine queues are a common sight at the station. Commuters have to stand for a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes.
“Moreover, most of the bus commuters have started taking suburban electric trains after the State Government increased the fares of buses run by Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC),” R. Mani, a commuter, said.
“I have to shell out more than Rs. 10 for travelling by an MTC bus from Guindy to Tambaram. On the contrary, with a train ticket costing only Rs. 5, I can travel up to Vandalur,” S. Lalitha Shivakumar, a commuter, said.
There are two suburban train ticket counters on the eastern and western sides. Most of the time, only one counter functions. Very rarely, both the counters function. A commuter nearly misses a couple of trains before buying a ticket, he pointed out.
“Moreover, commuters who lack the patience to stand in the queue, ask fellow-commuters standing in the queue to buy them the tickets. Some commuters try to jump the queue, which leads to commotion and sometimes a scuffle. Such incidents increase the waiting time.
Though there are a couple of automatic ticket vending machines on the western side, only one of them functions, that too occasionally,” commuters pointed out.
This is a common problem facing suburban stations during peak hours. In stations such as Tambaram, Chennai Egmore and Guindy, such problems continue throughout the day. Repeated calls to authorities concerned failed to evoke response.
