CHENNAI: Officials of Southern Railway here on Saturday conducted special ticket checks on board express trains operated in Chennai Division to remove unauthorized passengers from reserved coaches.

A special team of RPF and ticket checking staff of Chennai Railway Division de-boarded unauthorized passengers from reserved coaches in express trains during a day-long drive.

The special drives were conducted following public uproar over unauthorized passengers or people holding unreserved tickets traveling on reserved coaches and encroaching the space of reserved passengers.

The issue hit the headlines after rail users here and also north India posted on social media images of overcrowded reserved coaches of express trains 'encroached' by unauthorized passengers, mostly unreserved ticket holders and ticketless passengers.

Though the netizens welcomed the initiative of the railway authorities, suggestions poured in from the rail users to permanently resolve the issue.

Responding to a message posted on the official 'X' page of the DRM of Chennai regarding the special ticket checking drive, a rail user said that the DRM would do well to instruct his RPF and ticket checking teams to undertake the exercise 30 minutes before the departure of the train to deboard unauthorized passengers.

The 'X' user also asked the railway officials to restrict the issue of unreserved tickets to limit seat availability.

Some users advised the divisional boss to add more unreserved coaches to express trains.