Citizen Connect: Commuters pained due to steep, roofless staircase and shifting of ticket counters at Egmore station

Passengers travelling on Express trains shift to suburban trains to reach their destination and vice-versa at the terminal, apart from the regular office-goers who use the suburban trains for the daily commute.

Since the ticket counter for the suburban trains is located on the eastern end of the terminal on the Vepery side, the foot-over bridge leading to platforms 10 and 11 from the counters are always busy. Whereas the bridges on the northern end are rarely used by the commuters owing to theproximity factor.

At the eastern end, the previous wide staircase to reach the foot-over bridge has been shrunk to half its size to pave way for an upcoming escalator. Due to this, commuters find it extremely difficult to use the foot over bridge. “The staircase has also become steep. During peak hours, it easily takes five minutes just to cross the staircase owing to the crowd. The most-affected are elderly persons, differently-abled, women with children and people with heavy luggage. It has resulted in the increase of jaywalkers who don’t want to get stuck in the crowd,” said Shenbagaraj, a commuter of the suburban train. Since the new staircase does not have a roof, it becomes even more taxing for commuters to climb it in the blistering heat.

“It was not a wise idea to shrink the staircase in an ever-expanding railway terminal. Many are senior citizens who are still not comfortable using an escalator. So, authorities concerned should look for other options. Otherwise, in critical situations, it will lead to stampede like scenario,” said another commuter.

Also, since the ticket counter has been shifted to the ground floor, people coming from Gandhi-Irwin Road, have to climb the steps twice to buy tickets before reaching the platform.

When contacted, railway officials said that the staircase will soon be covered with a roof. “An escalator is being built adjacent to the staircase and the situation will get better after it is completed. The inconvenience is regretted,” said an official.