‘Drop move to make Rockfort Express a superfast train’

The Consumer Protection Council, Tamil Nadu, has opposed the decision to make the Rockfort Express a superfast express from Thursday.

“The speed of the train, which was 53 km an hour is to be increased to just 55 km an hour. We protest the move because it is an indirect fare hike as passengers have to pay ₹15 extra for ordinary II class,₹30 for sleeper class, ₹75 for I air-conditioned class and ₹45 for other air-conditioned classes,” said S.Pushpavanam, secretary of the council.

Representation

In a representation to the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, he said that passengers had not made any such demand.

The Tiruchi-Chennai Rockfort Express reaches Chennai at 5 a.m. and reaching earlier would only add to the difficulty of travellers as buses would be less frequent at that time. Leaving Tiruchi early would be of no help to passengers, he also contended.

“A similar attempt was thwarted in 1981 when railways declared that from June 1, 1981, Nellai Express, Rockfort Express, Pandian Express, Ganga-Cauvery Express and Cholan Express would become super fast express trains without any reduction in the journey time. Subsequently, the railways retained them as express trains,” he recalled.

Although the railways need to raise revenue, it cannot afford to lose passenger revenue through such indirect fare hike.

Already more than half of the express trains have been converted into super fast trains with slight increase in speed, he said and criticised the move to operate special fare trains and increase the tariff of retiring rooms.