Thoothukudi District Passengers’ Welfare Association has sought reintroduction of Thoothukudi – Coimbatore daytime intercity express train. This train service (149 /150) was discontinued in 1992 for gauge conversion. It was a major link between these two cities during the day and hence was a successful passenger train, M. Piramanayagam, secretary of the association told The Hindu here on Wednesday.
Currently, Thoothukudi has a daily night link express (TN-CBE-TN) train (16611/16612) to Coimbatore, but there is no day train connecting these cities. Considering the demands of passengers, efforts should be made to reintroduce the Thoothukudi-Coimbatore train.
Besides, the association also sought introduction of one more overnight train from Thoothukudi to Tambaram daily via Madurai. Thoothukudi being a large port city has only one daily overnight train to Chennai.
As a result, passengers were left at the mercy of costly bus services and the waiting list in the Thoothukudi- Chennai Pearlcity superfast express train (12693/12694) was always high.
Such a direct train would keep the activity of linking and de-linking the slip coaches to the main train at Vanchi Maniyachi junction at bay, he also said.
Much to the agony of passengers, there is no refreshment stall on the premises of Thoothukudi railway station. Though being an ‘A’ grade station, lack of this basic facility has forced passengers to get off the station to buy water, milk and snacks at a higher price.
Of the three platforms here, signals have been installed only to facilitate two platforms. The third platform remained non-operational in the absence of signals.
He demanded adequate facilities to accommodate 24 bogies on the first platform. Encroachments should be removed to ease vehicular traffic on the narrow road leading to the railway station.
These demands were represented to the Additional Divisional Railway Manager, P.V. Murali Krishna, Southern Railway, Madurai, recently, he also said.
