Prolonged struggle and persistent demands of city residents for restoring Rockfort Express to Tiruchi finally bore fruit when the train restarted its operation from here on Sunday night.
Ever since the train originally introduced in the Tiruchi–Chennai chord line section was extended to Thanjavur at first and later to Kumbakonam some years ago, Tiruchiites had been fighting hard for its operation from Tiruchi - true to its name ‘Rockfort’.
They expressed their displeasure over the extension of this popular night train which had been running with packed capacity by resorting to agitations and shooting off memorandums to the railway administration at regular intervals.
The extension, however, proved beneficial to travellers from Kumbakonam and Thanjavur for whom the express train was a convenient service at night. Tiruchi-based consumer and other organisations joined hands and formed a committee to retrieve Rockfort Express.
Finally, the Railways announced the termination of Rockfort Express in Tiruchi and the operation of a new train from Thanjavur to Chennai.
However, the suspense over the exact date of operation of the new train caused concern among travellers from Kumbakonam and Thanjavur who wanted the termination of Rockfort Express in Tiruchi to be done only after introducing the Thanjavur–Chennai night train.
Their anxiety came to an end a few days ago when the Railways announced that the Thanjavur–Chennai express would start operating from September 1 and that Rockfort Express would terminate in Tiruchi.
