Chaos in suburban section as service suspended for three hours

Suburban train stations, especially Kodambakkam from where maintenance work was undertaken till Pallavaram, were packed after hundreds of rail commuters, unaware of the scheduled line block, remained stranded. Many recklessly scampered across tracks to board trains, frequency of which was halved on Sunday in view of the maintenance work. The Southern Railway had on Friday announced cancellation of several regular services and operation of special services to undertake maintenance from 11 am to 2 pm on the route on Sunday.

Commuters complained that railway authorities did not do enough to help them. “I boarded a train at Tambaram station where no announcement was made regarding change of track or platform at Kodambakkam. The railway guard I had inquired with at Tambaram told me that train would only ply till Kodambakkam. Several Central and Egmore bound passengers alighted at Trisulam and took the Metro Rail to Egmore and Central,” said S Avainayagam, a techie who travels every day to Egmore from Tambaram.

“A note put up at Beach station said train service to Tambaram from Beach would be affected from 10.45 am to 2.45 pm. An announcement made at Beach informed commuters that service would be available only till Kodambakkam. There was no mention of changing platform or boarding a connecting train at Kodambakkam towards Tambaram,” said S Kathirvel, a commuter at Beach station.

When asked, railway authorities claimed that trains were operated every 40 minutes (against usual 20 minutes) from Beach to Kodambakkam on usual suburban line and from Kodambakkam on fast line till Tambaram. Commuters from Beach had to get down at Kodambakkam and move to fast line platform and board another train to proceed towards Tambaram and vice versa. “Usually, we undertake such line blocks (during day) only on MMC-Tiruvallur and MMC-Avadi line. This is the first time we have undertaken such a line block on Beach – Tambaram route. Hence, such a rush,” a senior railway official told DT Next.

“Frequency was reduced to 40 minutes, instead of usual 20 minutes on Sunday, which is the lean traffic day of the week. We had even advised loco pilots to reduce speed and honk regularly at stations where people could recklessly cross tracks owing to transshipment,” the official added, claiming that adequate publicity was given to inform the commuters about the maintenance work.