KARUR: Passengers who boarded a train from Tiruchy to Salem on Friday were made to get down at Karur junction. After waiting for nearly two hours, officials arranged for a bus to take the passengers to Salem. Due to electrification works in the Karur-Namakkal-Salem section, all passenger trains to Salem were cancelled by Southern Railway.
The information was provided to all officials at Karur junction and they were told not to issue tickets for Salem. But due to miscommunication at Tiruchy station, tickets were issued on Friday for Salem. Passengers boarded the Tiruchy-Salem passenger train at 9.30 am on Friday, unaware of electrification works or the temporary suspension of services to Salem. After the train reached Karur junction, passengers were asked to de-board and informed about the suspension of rail services. They became furious and had heated arguments with officials at the station for not informing them in advance.
Rajendran, a passenger, told Express, “No one informed us at Tiruchy junction while buying tickets the train would run only up to Karur. If we had been told, we would have looked for alternatives. As it is, the train took more than two hours to reach Karur and now we are told we have to take a bus to go to Salem. Most of us, including myself, are on our way to Bengaluru. We were prepared to reach Salem and take another train to Bengaluru, but taking the bus is an unwanted journey for us. It only takes a little effort to inform people buying tickets or even something should have been put up on the notice board. Due to this delay, many of us are going to miss our train to Bengaluru from Salem.”
Initially, passengers were asked by the officials to take a bus and pay out of their own pockets to go to Salem. But after being confronted by irate passengers, officials arranged for a TNSTC bus to take them to Salem without any charge.A senior official at Karur junction told Express, “We got the information about temporary train service suspension on the Karur-Namakkal-Salem section late on Thursday night. After getting the information, we sent a circular to all staff about the cancellation, put it up on the notice board and also issued instructions to stop tickets being issued to Salem until further notice. Despite all this, a communication problem between Tiruchy and Salem railway divisions led to the information not getting passed on.”