Southern Railway’s eleventh-hour announcement on cancellations and diversions irks commuters

The practice of announcing cancellation or diversion of regular passenger trains, citing ‘maintenance/engineering works’, at the eleventh hour by the railway administration has not gone well with commuters.

Generally, the maintenance or engineering works would be pre-planned as they require the pooling of resources such as materials, equipment and men for execution. Such being the case, cancellation or diversion of trains for which booking of seats/berths have been accepted from the commuters at the eleventh hour would cause inconvenience to passengers, said S. Sethuraman, a social activist of Thanjavur.

For instance, train number 16127 Chennai-Guruvayur Express from Chennai Egmore, train number 12606 Pallavan Super-fast, train 12636 Vaigai Super-fast and train 07192 Madurai-Kacheguda Express proceeding towards Chennai Egmore were diverted through the main line section on Wednesday because of “engineering works” between Ichchangadu and Mathur railway stations on the chord-line.

Since these diversions were announced on a day earlier, it would have inconvenienced the commuters who have planned their journey between Chennai and Srirangam, Lalgudi and Ariyalur stations and Virudhachalam junction in these trains on Wednesday, he pointed out.

Regretting the eleventh-hour announcement, S.Sundaresan of Kumbakonam said that though stoppages at Cuddalore Port, Mayiladuthurai, Kumbakonam and Thanjavur for the diverted trains had been announced, the passengers alighting at these stations would be forced to look for alternate arrangements to reach their destinations or reach these stations from their respective places to catch the diverted trains on time.

What was more disturbing was that the commuters who had planned their journey in the cancelled Tirunelveli-Chennai Egmore Vande Bharat would be made to reschedule it. Mere paying back the booking cost, after standard deductions, if any, by the railway authorities would in no way alleviate the hardships undergone by the passengers for no fault of theirs.

Instead of taking shelter under the “advance intimation of cancellation of trains through SMS” facility, the officials should consider avoiding accepting bookings for trains likely to be cancelled on the dates when they plan/schedule to execute the “engineering works”, he added.