CHENNAI: As Southern Railway initiated operating free special buses between Tambaram and Chennai Beach to cater to the peak-hour rush in the wake of EMU service disruption, commuters have begun seeking additional stoppages and route expansion to make the service more effective.
The current 20 special buses run 40 trips a day along the GST Road covering Tambaram Sanatorium, Chromepet, Pallavaram, Tirusulam, Guindy and then directly stops at Ezhilagam, Secretariat and Parrys Corner before its last stop at Beach.
While the service has provided some relief to suburban passengers affected by the heavily curtailed EMU schedule, commuters lamented that the existing halting pattern was inefficient. “The bus runs on the 21G route via Kotturpuram. They could at least stop at Anna University. Stopping directly at Ezhilagaam after Guindy is extremely inconvenient for us. I already have a 3-month pass for EMU travel, and now I have spent Rs 1,000 to get an MTC pass. Why should I spend it? Railways need to come up with an effective solution,” fumed Federation of Varadarajapuram Welfare Associations president V Rajasekaran, a regular commuter.
Passengers also said that the 7-minute interval was not dependable and the interval stretched upto 20 minutes, causing them to take the first bus that came along the route.
They also demanded buses along Anna Salai, which housed a significant concentration of offices and commercial establishments.
“They decided that people will deboard at Guindy and will hop on the metro to reach elsewhere. They think that everyone can afford a regular Metro,” said Amarjothi, who works in an automobile showroom in Anna Salai. “I usually deboard at Kodambakkam station and take a bus to reach the showroom. Now, I use the Metro from Guindy, though I could not afford it just to reach on time,” she added.