Palakkad Railway Division’s Railway Users’ Consultative Committee member K. P. Jagadish Adhikari on Saturday urged the Southern Railways to advance the arrival timing of Bengaluru-Mangaluru Overnight Express at Mangaluru Central and provide halt for Mangaluru Central-Mumbai LTT-Mangaluru Central Matsyagandha Express at Mangaluru Junction Station.
Mr. Adhkari met Palakkad Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Trilok Kothari who was visiting Mangaluru on Saturday along with Railway activist Gopalakrishna Bhat and submitted a list of demands. Southern Railways has proposed to postpone the arrival time of Train No. 06515 (Bengaluru-Mangaluru-Kannur), the only overnight train between Bengaluru and Mangaluru Central, from the present 7.18 a.m. to 7.28 a.m. This causes severe inconvenience to the travelling public, he said.
Instead, the train that arrives at Mangaluru Junction at 6.45 a.m. instead of its scheduled arrival timing of 7.18 a.m., should be made to leave Junction at 7 a.m. to reach Mangaluru Central at 7.15 a.m. From Central, it may leave for Kannur at 7.45 a.m., he said. This revision of timing would not affect the arrival timing of Train No. 02619, Mumbai LTT-Mangaluru Central Matsyagandha Special that operates with an average delay of 15 minutes. Its arrival time at Mangaluru Central may be revised to 7.50 a.m., the activists told the DRM.
Mr. Adhikari also urged the DRM to postpone departure timing of Mangaluru Central-Madgaon Passenger to 6 a.m. as the present 5.30 a.m. departure timing was inconvenient to passengers. The Mangaluru-Kabakaputtur evening passenger should be extended till Subrahmanya Road Station and commencing its journey from Subrahmanya Road at 6.30 a.m. to reach Mangaluru Central at 8.50 a.m.
They also demanded extension of Vijayapura-Mangaluru Central-Vijayapura Special Express to Mangaluru Central and receiving it before 9.30 a.m. and dispatching it at around 6 p.m. The Mangaluru-Bengaluru day train services should be made to leave Junction at 8.15 a.m. instead of the present 11.30 a.m.
Mangaluru Junction-Mumbai CSMT-Mangaluru Junction (Train 02134/33) Special was regularly running late since a year and this could be avoided by having rake sharing arrangement with Chennai-Mangaluru Superfast Express by extending the CSMT special to Central.
