KOCHI: With Southern Railway cancelling many special trains from Tuesday citing low occupancy, regular passengers have found life more difficult. A few passenger organisations have shot off a letter to the railway authorities to revert the decision while others are planning to launch protests online
Much to the misery of inter-district passengers, many special trains passing through central Kerala will not be in service from Tuesday, with Southern Railway citing low occupancy as the reason. The decision to cancel 20 trains including weekend specials will be a big blow to office-goers and other passengers who rely on them to travel to Kochi and back amid the lockdown restrictions.
“It’s nothing but a callous decision from the officials without considering the ground reality. Employees working in various sectors cannot afford to take leave and need to manage their household responsibilities. At a time when the private vehicle owners are finding it difficult to run the business because of e-pass issues, how can a person with no such privileges eke out a living in these testing times?” asked Baiju J P, a regular passenger from Thrissur who works at a workshop in Kochi.Fuming over the decision to cancel more trains which are widely occupied by regular commuters, several passenger associations have shot off letters to the Divisional Manager, Southern Railway, Thiruvananthapuram.
“When essential emergency services are functioning in a full-fledged manner across the state, the cancellation of several important trains comes as a shock to the passengers. Curtailing the train services on account of poor occupancy in the Covid scenario is against national interest. The authorities should reinstate the services without any delay,” said Liyons J, secretary, Friends on Rails, a welfare organisation of railway passengers.
Meanwhile, others have called for the rescheduling of the Shornur-Ernakulam memu train, which currently plies at an odd time, to ease the worries of regular commuters. “Though we can understand the low occupancy of special trains, it is illogical to run the available memu trains at odd times. The Shornur-Ernakulam memu starts at 3.30am from Shornur and reaches Ernakulam at 6am. Who wants that train at this point of time? Two days ago, only a single passenger travelled on that train. As government offices are returning to 50% staff strength by next week, the railways should reschedule the train according to office hours,” said Thrissur Railway Passengers Association general secretary Krishnakumar P.
According to railway officials, they have only extended the cancellation period of most trains. “Apart from the Kozhikode-Thiruvananthapuram Jan Shatabdi for the next 15 days, all other cancellations are merely an extension of existing cancelled trains. Occupancy is very low these days. If we take a passenger footfall in a week, the figures won’t go beyond 20% of the total capacity. We took the decision after getting approval from the railway board,” said the official.