CHENNAI: The severe disruption faced by suburban train commuters on Friday has been attributed to the change in platforms at Egmore station, from platforms 10 and 11 to 5 and 6, due to ongoing station redevelopment work.
The change has created a significant bottleneck, as trains now have to navigate across five or six tracks to reach their designated platforms and then cross back to exit. "It will inevitably take time. Every time a train crosses the tracks to halt at the new platform, it adds extra minutes to the schedule.
Similarly, the process of crossing back to the main line upon departure also causes further delays of around 15 minutes," a senior railway official explained, detailing the reason for the backlog experienced on Friday.
While the platforms themselves are undergoing renovation, the railway tracks remain functional. To mitigate the ongoing delays, officials should consider an interim solution: temporarily suspending all EMU stops at Egmore, said officials aware of the operations.
According to a Railway official, this would involve announcing well in advance that trains will bypass the station. Commuters heading to Egmore could then disembark at either Chetpet or Park station. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) could operate shuttle services between these stations and Egmore to ferry passengers the rest of the way, thus avoid the congestion caused by the platform switching.