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FESTIVAL RUSH - Special trains cannot cope with demand
Chennai
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It's the same story when every festival nears. The railways cannot operate enough additional trains to meet the de mand, making people heading home desperate to the point of be ing reckless.
The demand for seats is so high that special trains intro duced for Onam festival were sold out soon after bookings opened. Regular services are al ways sold out when booking opens for Diwali, Onam, Christmas and New Year.
Tickets were sold out for scheduled services between Chennai and Tirunelveli, Tutico rin, Madurai, Trichy , Coimba tore and a few other towns less than 10 minutes after bookings opened two days ago.
Southern Railway introduces special trains close to festival dates to meet the demand. How ever, four or five special trains for each festival always proves inade quate. The railways has failed to make the most of higher demand though the phenomenon has per sisted for years.
“It has become a routine for tickets to be sold out for regular trains on festival eve but the railways has not taken steps to meet the demand. People who do not get berths are forced to travel by private buses and operators hike prices when the demand is high,“ said G Murali, a regular traveler.
Officials say shortage of coaches and congested tracks limit the number of special trains they can operate.
Southern Railway operated 584 special trains in the first three months and more than 1,600 coaches were attached to regular trains on a day-to-day ba sis for waitlisted passengers. But this was not enough because the number of passengers has grown over the years and the railways has not improved infrastructure to operate more trains.
“We do not have enough pit lines to maintain trains at rail way yards and doubling of lines is progressing at snail's pace on southern routes where the de mand is greatest,“ said a senior railway official, adding that they will now have to introduce spe cial trains or add coaches to regu lar trains to accommodate people on the waiting list.