If there is a slot available for this train without affecting the existing operation, it should be done, no doubt about it, if not certainly MAQ needs another platform and other infrastructure expansion.
At the same time isn't it also responsibility for those in powers there (city corporation, and legislature) to improve road connectivity/public transport to Mangaluru Junction, not from Kudla express perspective alone, but also for other trains which pass through Mangaluru junction so that people of Mangaluru are truly benefited with two stations and more trains?
Not all trains from...
more... Chennai start at Chennai Central, some begin at Egmore which is like 2.2 Km away and now there is plan to make Tambaram also as a terminal station (almost nearing completion) and which is like a good 27 kilometer from chennai central.
Within SWR itself in Bangalore don't we have trains beginning from KSR and some trains beginning from Yasvantpur junction which is like 7 kilometers apart ? I still remember days i used to my tense trip in traffic to Yasvantpur junction when i used to work at Bengaluru, where there is always a chance that i might miss my train due to traffic.
The distance from Mangaluru Junction is like 5 kilometer's ? as for 16517 the train belongs to SWR, so the decision to run it as a slip service is surely a conscious decision of SWR.