Sudden cancellation of EMUs leaves thousands stranded on Chennai Beach-Tambaram route

CHENNAI: Regular users of the EMU trains were exhausted and fuming on Sunday, as the Southern Railways had suddenly cancelled the services in one of the busiest routes among the four sections – Chennai Beach-Tambaram. Though the announcement came on Saturday afternoon, it did not give enough time for the public to make alternative arrangements.

This was especially difficult, as it was barely 10 days before the Pongal holidays, and denizens would throng the shopping hubs in the city, Mambalam and Broadway – all of which are located near the railway stations and easily accessible through local trains.

Trains in the Chennai Beach-Tambaram section were cancelled from 7 am to 4 pm on Sunday due to the construction works of foot-over-bridge at the Tambaram railway station. A pair of 19 special trains were operated by Southern Railway in around 30-minute interval until Pallavaram to meet the demand in the section on both sides. Another nine sets of each train were operated from Chengalpattu to Guduvancheri and back, during the cancelled period.

With only a few days left for the Pongal festival, families who had to shop for goods and other essentials were inconvenienced due to the sudden cancellation. Since the announcement was made only on Saturday evening, it did not reach most of the public, which led to thousands of regular users at Tambaram station.

Cancellation of EMUs also led to traffic congestion as private vehicles, autos and two-wheelers were in large numbers on GST road. There was ad-hoc traffic for around 2 km in the Tambaram area. Since there were not enough police personnel to regulate the traffic, navigation became a nightmare for motorists.

“We understand that FoB works play an important role in the development of the Tambaram railway station and are unavoidable. Of course, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) provided additional buses which helped passengers. But SR announces the cancellations in a very short timeframe – mostly on the previous day, making it impossible for thousands of passengers to become aware of it. Such announcements must be made at least a week before and in every type of media platform,” opined Dayanand Krishnan, a Tambaram resident. Also the works must be completed soon without any lag.”

Additional buses by the MTC were not sufficient to meet passengers’ demand, alleged regular users. “If the Railways had done this work during Pongal holidays, the impact would have been lesser,” pointed out a passenger.

When contacted, an official attached to SR’s Chennai division said, “The cancellation notification was released on Saturday evening as there were plans to cut short the number of cancelled trains. Since that did not happen, the notification was delayed. On Sunday, we cancelled trains as it would have been worse if it was cancelled on weekdays. Sunday was the only practically possible day.”