For sake of more revenue - Southern Railways to convert passenger trains to express trains
Posted on: 19/Jun/2020 10:56:13 AM
Raking in more revenue by tapping the demand for point-to-point travel to be done by the southern railways!!
In future, don’t be surprised to see more express trains carrying passengers from one place to another place in TN. Southern Railways has been thinking of converting passenger trains into express trains for the sake of their revenue. It must be taken into account that around 34 daily passenger trains and around 10 trains that run inside TN would be converted to express trains.
Various trains that might be converted to express trains include Villupuram-Tirupathi, Erode-Tirunelveli, Mayiladuthurai- Tirunelveli, Trichy-Rameswaram, Coimbatore-Kannur, Coimbatore-Nagercoil, Villupuram-Madurai, Tiruchendur-Palaghat etc.
Information collected is both DEMU/Diesel Electric Multiple Units and MEMU/ Mainline Electric Multiple Units services that are lifelines for the people in the rural places have been included under the passenger services.
The main disadvantages associated in converting passenger trains to express trains are passengers have to pay more money for the tickets and the passengers from small immediate stations would not be able to board the trains. The minimum fare that is Rs 10 in the passenger trains would be Rs 30 in the express trains.
There are many people who use the passenger trains to come to small towns from rural places for their jobs. These people would be totally affected by the conversion of passengers to express trains. This was according to Mr. K. Baskar, former member of divisional rail user’s consultative committee.
He explained about how the people would suffer as the railway station stops would be cut and how the people would have to depend on the bus services to reach their destinations. Fact is there are no adequate bus facilities to the interior places in TN. In a meeting at Bengaluru, the suggestion to convert the passenger trains into express trains was discussed.
