For three days, the toy train in Kadri Park has not been on its rounds because of lack of passengers. The toy train, which had resumed running after repairs in February, is finding it difficult to get the minimum number of 15 passengers, required to run a trip.
“Especially after June 1, with schools reopening and rains starting the same day, the train hardly gets the minimum number to run a trip. We wait till 6.30 p.m. After that, we lock up and leave,” says Nagesh, who issues tickets.
Running the trip with less than 15 persons is uneconomical.
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Even if the train is half-filled, we can run it. But even that number is not happening, he says.
The train has 17 seats that can seat 34 people (more if the passengers are children).
Mr. Chandrashekhar says, “we have had zero trips on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday”.
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Mr. Nagesh says on Thursday also, it rained, which meant that the train may slip because of tracks being flooded.
Flooded
Unless the water is cleared, the train cannot run. At its peak, the train does eight trips a day. Now, it does five to six trips, like last Sunday, he says.
Three-year-old Theju was seen pretending to lock the seat of the toy train in Kadri Park on Thursday evening. “Hordona?” (shall we go?) he was asking Mr.Nagesh.
Theju was the sole occupant of the train.
The train was flagged off by Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, following repairs worth Rs.3 lakh by Mangalore City Corporation in February. The event had been attended by N. Yogish Bhat, Deputy Speaker, Legislative Assembly, and Sulochana, President, Bal Bhavan Society, Bangalore.
A. Shakuntala, Deputy Director of the District Department of Women and Child Welfare, was contacted but there was no response.