BENGALURU: The sustained pressure from the Bengaluru Railway Division and the barrage of criticism up to the Railway Minister about its late running from passengers, has now made the Hubli-headquartered South Western Railway Zone create a new train to substitute the KSR Bengaluru-Chennai Mail. It began its run from Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna railway station after midnight of 3 January.
“The first run of the train will take place early morning on Thursday. SWR agreed to our demand and sent it across on Tuesday. We will begin its first run today and will have it till February end. It will run at its scheduled time of 10.40 pm daily,” said a top railway official on Wednesday. This is the second major attempt in six weeks by the Railways to revive the Chennai Mail.
A similar scratch rake (train created by using spare coaches) was introduced on November 25, 2017, but was withdrawn after five days.The rake was urgently required to replace the Vasco Da Gama-Patna Express which was badly damaged due to a major derailment in Uttar Pradesh on November 24.
An average of nearly 2,000 passengers who travel from Bengaluru by this train (12658), suffered constant anguish as the train ran between two hours to 6 hours late most days, since the onset of winter. The delay was often made public on social media at the eleventh hour.
The Chennai Mail, scheduled to depart at 10.40 pm from City Railway Station daily, had been leaving around 5 am the next day.The reason was the delay of its pairing train, the Karnataka Express from New Delhi due to foggy conditions there.Even the train meant to depart on Tuesday (January 2), left after a 5 hr 40 minute delay on Wednesday morning (January 3).
A major discussion on Chennai Mail was taking place on Twitter on Jan 2 with one of the passengers NT Sathua cautioning others in a tweet: “Never ever rely on this train to go to Chennai. Best stick to Kaveri express. If its a Friday, take YESVANTPUR-CHENNAI express. And Wednesday night take MYSORE-CHENNAI weekly express.”
The new train, however, ended up having a late start of nearly two hours. It departed at 1.30 am on Thursday instead of the scheduled time of 10.40 pm on Wednesday. “The formation of the new rake was done only on Wednesday. So, it suffered some delay. It will be punctual from Thursday night onwards,” said an official.