CHENNAI: The restoration of the Chennai Egmore-Kollam daily train, one of the much sought-after trains during the meter gauge era between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, after 19 years, received an arousing welcome from rail passengers and enthusiasts in Egmore on Monday.
The railways has reinstated the train number 6101/6102 of the Madras Egmore-Quilon mail whose service was discontinued in 2000, to the new train. When launched in 1914, the train’s number was 101/102.
Train no 16101/16102 Chennai Egmore-Kollam train was flagged off by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in Dharmapuri. The inaugural service was given a cheerful departure from platform 2 by a large number of rail passengers.
45-year-old S Suresh Kumar, a rail fan from Virudhunagar, said he came to Chennai only to travel on the inaugural service of the train. “During my college days, I have regularly travelled from Virudhunagar to Manamadurai in the erstwhile Quilon Mail,” he recalled.
The inaugural train was operated with fully loaded passengers. The train will run with electrical locomotives till Tiruchy, from then it will be operated with diesel loco.