Chennai suburban train commuters get more shuttle services to St Thomas Mount

Chennai: After Friday's chaotic rollout of the revised suburban schedule which left students and officers stranded, Southern Railway has drawn up a contingency plan to steady operations on the busy Chennai Beach–Tambaram–Chengalpet corridor. From Monday, additional shuttle services will run between Guduvanchery and St Thomas Mount, enabling commuters to switch to Chennai Metro Rail services. Select trains to Chennai Beach from Tambaram will be curtailed to streamline traffic during the ongoing redevelopment works at Egmore.
The revised schedule of train operations came into force on Friday and will be in force till April 5. Against the regular 204 services, only 164 services operated on Friday, with 15-minute frequency during peak hours. Due to this thousands of commuters were stranded due to reduced frequency of trains and delayed operations at Egmore.To ease the situation, the Chennai division of the Southern Railway carried out a trial run of shuttle services on Saturday. "Commuters can get down at St Thomas Mount and switch to Metro trains to reach their destination," said an official. However, CUMTA sources expressed their displeasure over the railways' decision to alter train operations without consulting state agencies like them, and MTC. "We would recommend carrying out the work during summer holidays so that students do not suffer," said CUMTA sources.K Baskar, a former member of the Divisional Railway Users' Consultative Committee, suggested that the railways may consider operating a few fast locals between Tambaram and Chennai Beach, with fewer stops in between.P Viswanathan of Chitlapakkam said no other transport is as economical as suburban trains, and the railways should minimise the impact of their work on passengers. "More metro trains alone are not enough; they should be operated at an economical fare," he said.