Poor suburban train services have been making lives difficult for many Gummidipondi & north Chennai residents!!
Chennai not only includes residents who are living in southern parts, but also the residents who are living in the northern parts.
The lives of these residents are totally different. Bitter truth is that south Chennai residents have the advantage of frequent suburban train services linked to superb bus transport whereas the residents of north Chennai depend only on the suburban train services.
It is known that south Chennai is thickly populated with mostly middle class people and north Chennai has weaker sections of people. Many students from places like Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Tiruvottiyur and Gummidipoondi etc go to their schools in Chennai and they depend mostly on the suburban train services.
It is worth mentioning here that the number of suburban train services beyond Athipattu is limited for north Chennai residents. Even, a few decades back started MRTS operates more services now. The suburban trains are operated by the Southern Railways from MMC and Beach stations to as far as Sullurpeta is known. These trains pass through Korukkupet, Athipattu, Gummidipoondi and Ponneri etc.
It was brought out by a social activist Mr. S. Suresh Babu that there has been a shortage of suburban train services in the morning peak hours from Gummidipoondi. The frequency of these trains is an issue as one train leaves for the beach at 8:50am whereas the other train leaves for MMC at 10am. Point to be noted is that this one hour gap has been making lives tough for many commuters now.
Mr. Suresh Babu wants more EMU services especially in the morning and evening peak hours plus a loop line for suburban trains. He was of the view that these would improve the operational efficiency of the local trains. As a result, delays would be avoided.
The extension of third and fourth lines from Athipattu Pudhunagar to Gummidipoondi has been eagerly awaited by the commuters of Gummidipoondi for many years now. It is believed that the extension would create dedicated tracks for the local EMU trains and increase the frequency of train services. Restoration of a few EMU services that were stopped during the Covid 19 lockdown was also demanded by the commuters.
