CHENNAI: The rail passengers in Vaniyambadi have urged the Railway officials to allow halts to more trains at the station to improve the region’s connectivity with Bengaluru and Mumbai. Though Vaniyambadi is home to high number of tanneries, train facilities in the region leave a lot to be de desired, rue passengers.
“The extension of Chennai-Bengaluru Express upto Mysuru since January last year increased our travel woes as we do not gets seats anymore while travelling to Chennai. The Mysuru-Chennai Superfast Express reaches Bengaluru at 7.45 am with jam-packed bogies. Daily commuters to Vaniyambadi and Ambur find no space and it is nearly impossible to reserve seats in second class bogies,” said K Iqbal Ahmed, Vaniyambadi Rail Users Association secretary.
As per RTI data, the per-day unreserved passenger patronage of the station between Apr 1 and Oct 30 in 2018 was 1,300. The station’s annual revenue was `7 crore. The Chennai-Jolarpettai section is one of the highly congested sections in the country with over 120% of track utilisation, largely due to Kerala bound trains. Given that the town is now part of Tirupattur district, tannery owners want a halt for the Mumbai-Kanniyakumari Express. They say it would boost the development of the region.