

CHENNAI: Southern Railway is operating nearly 130 trains from the pre-Deepavali period until Chhath Puja to manage the festive rush, of which around 70 to 80 will run within Tamil Nadu and the remaining 40 towards the eastern and northern regions, General Manager U Subba Rao said on Wednesday.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of ‘Station Mahotsav’, organised by the Chennai Division of Southern Railway at the Royapuram station to celebrate its heritage as the oldest surviving railway station in the Indian subcontinent. As part of the celebrations, a special heritage run of EIR-22 was flagged off from Chennai Egmore by Subba Rao, additional general manager Vipin Kumar and Chennai Divisional railway manager Shailendra Singh.
The special heritage train will operate between Chennai Egmore and Royapuram. The General Manager and other railway officials travelled aboard the train before alighting at the Royapuram station.
Metro service hours extended for Deepavali
Chennai: Considering the Deepavali rush, Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) will extend operating hours across all three corridors on Friday. CMRL will advance the start of evening peak-hour services by an hour to 4 pm and continue them until 9 pm, instead of the usual 5 pm to 8 pm window. Last trains from terminal stations on Green and Blue Lines will depart at midnight, against the regular 11 pm, while Yellow Line services will continue until 11 pm instead of 9 pm.