CHENNAI: The Chennai division of Southern Railway has issued stringent directions to Travel Ticket Examiners (TTEs), clarifying that passengers with reserved tickets up to Chennai Egmore should not be issued penalties for travelling on suburban trains from Tambaram to Egmore. This clarification follows a recent complaint, wherein a TTE fined a passenger who travelled in a reserved class at T Nagar.
A significant number of reserved class passengers travelling on express trains from Madurai and other southern districts to Chennai Egmore mostly get down at Tambaram in order to travel to St. Thomas Mount, Guindy, T Nagar, and other stations.
Despite repeated clarifications from the railway’s commercial department, TTEs had been imposing fines on such passengers.
An order issued by the Chennai division on Friday stated, “All passengers with higher class tickets, including reserved ones, are permitted to travel on suburban trains, provided that the destination mentioned on the higher class ticket exceeds the destination of the suburban journey.”
R Pandiaraja, a member of the Zonal Rail Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) for SR, said, “Taking advantage of the passengers’ ignorance, TTEs continue to penalise those with valid tickets.