Southern Railway’s decision not to revive the stoppage for Chendur Express (train nos. 16105/16106) at Papanasam has upset the passengers.
The move comes despite the train’s arrival at Tiruchi and Tirunelveli junctions ahead of the scheduled time during its upward journey. The scheduled time of arrival of the train proceeding to Tiruchendur from Chennai Egmore (train no.16105) at Tiruchi was 00.05 hours every day and departure at 00.10 hours. However, invariably it reaches Tiruchi five to fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled arrival on almost all days.
For instance, Chendur Express from Chennai Egmore arrived Tiruchi at 23.45 hours on January 12, at 23.55 hours on January 13 and 14. On Friday, it reached the Tiruchi junction at the scheduled time, as per the details of running time of trains operated by the railways available on the web, according to Saravanan of Papanasam, who is also a member of the Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee, Tiruchi division.
Similarly, this train reaches Tirunelveli junction nearly 60 minutes ahead of the scheduled time of 05.55 hours every day and starts for Tiruchendur after 06.00 hours, he points out.
Wondering what could be the stumbling block for reviving the two-minute stoppage for Chendur Express at Papanasam in the backdrop of the arrival/departure timings of this train at two important junctions beyond Papansasm in its upward journey, Mr. Saravanan says it is hard to digest the reasoning that “it would be operationally not feasible to revive the stoppage” given by the officials towards the plea to revive the stoppage at Papanasam, at the recent DRUCC meeting.
He also laments that the suspension of passenger train services through Papanasam citing COVID-19 pandemic situation was all set to have an impact on the passenger ticket revenue generation of this railway station.
Prior to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the UTS booking remained a reliable source of income for this station which had the track record of income through ticket sales hovering between ₹10 to ₹12 lakh per month, he points out.
