BENGALURU: One of the most jam-packed rail sections between Bengaluru and Chennai has become unpopular of late, thanks to the Covid pandemic. A Super Fast (SF) special launched between the two cities stands cancelled from November 21.
The KSR Bengaluru-Chennai Central-KSR SF train (Train nos 02027/02028) launched on October 23 on all days of the week, barring Tuesday, was to be operational until further notice from the Railways. It has now decided to stop it due to poor occupancy.
Divisional Railway Manager A K Verma told The New Indian Express, “We have been observing occupancy in the past three to four days. The special has only AC First class seating and Chair car in it. Out of 120 seats available on first AC, it had only 7 seats on one day from our end and 25 on another day.” The overall patronage, too, was not promising at all, he added.
“From the Bengaluru end, the train ran with just 20% occupancy while it had only 10% occupancy when coming from Chennai. Hence, we decided to stop this special,” he said. The KSR Bengaluru-Chennai Central departs from the city at 6am and reaches Chennai at 11am, while the Chennai Central-KSR Special departs from Chennai at 5.30pm and reaches Bengaluru at 10.30pm.