Reporter's Diary: Passengers tweet to bring down train delays

SR, in a release, stated that six suburban services from Madras Beach would terminate at Pallavaram between Sunday 8.30 pm  and 3.30 am on Monday due to signal engineering work at the up and coming coaching centre at Tambaram. It went on to state that suburban trains to Chengalpattu and Tirumalpur near Kanchipuram would be operated on the express lines in both directions. As a consequence, the release added, 12 Express trains to southern destinations were 'likely to be delayed by  a few minutes during this period.' 

But passengers, who included this scribe, found out that delays ranged up to one and a half hours. When an aggrieved passenger tweeted the DRM about the delay, there was no reply. The irked passenger tagged Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in the message to check if he would get the railways to respond at least then.

The trick worked and the DRM immediately responded stating the reasons for such a prolonged delay and regretted the inconvenience. The passenger later included the delays for nearly ten express trains in his tweet to the CDOM.  However, the officer chose to maintain the railway tradition of having a ‘stiff upper lip’. — Tharian Mathew, Chennai