Demand: Regularize Nagercoil-Chennai Egmore weekly Sunday special
(Via. Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Mayiladuthurai and Chidambaram route
Chennai: Kanniyakumari district is politically under Tamilnadu, it is a part of the Trivandrum division of Southern Railway. Kanyakumari District is located around 750 KM from the state capital of Tamilnadu, due to this most of the people prefer train journey. People need more trains for this district, operating via Madurai and other Tamil Nadu cities/towns. Most of the district people’s movements are towards Tirunelveli and Madurai direction only.
Southern Railway has been operating a seasonal weekly special train between Nagercoil and Chennai. This train starts from Nagercoil on Sundays and from Chennai on Mondays. This is highly useful for the weekend passengers for their return journey from Nagercoil to state capital Chennai on Sundays.
For the past 18 years, this weekly special is managed using lie over time of 16335/36 Gandhidham-Nagercoil express. This rake is consistently used to operate Sunday special between Nagercoil and Chennai Egmore, which was very popular among the passengers.
Similar trains in Kerala (Trivandrum, Ernakulam) have been regularized and made permanent trains (Using the rake of 16334/16333 Thiruvananthapuram-Veraval Express as Trivandrum – Chennai Central weekly train and Using the rake of 16338/16337 Ernakulam-Okha Express as Ernakulam-Bangalore bi-weekly).
But the Trivandrum division/Southern Railways does not take steps to regularize the trains from Nagercoil. Kanyakumari District Railway Users’ Association (KKDRUA) request the railway authorities to give more emphasis for Tamilnadu route.
The Association request this train to be made a permanent weekly train in the next railway timetable. If railway implements this suggestion, no need of additional resources. If this train is regularized, it will be a boon for the weekend travelers, where as it will also increase the revenue for Railways.
Extension of Long-distance trains to Kanyakumari via Madurai, Tirunelveli
There are lots of people from southern districts employed in state capital Chennai. Also have a number of students doing their higher education in Chennai. However, the train services between Chennai and southern district are inappropriate. It has recently become very difficult to obtain reservation tickets in the present trains. The Kanyakumari Christian Forum Chennai have been demanding an additional train between Chennai and Nagercoil, but nothing has materialized. May please bring the following for consideration. In order to get additional services to Chennai, the following trains can be extended till Kanyakumari.
1. Extension of 12688/87 Chandigarh/Dehradun-Madurai biweekly express to Kanyakumarii.
2. Extension of 12652/51 Nizamuddin-Madurai TNSK biweekly to Nagercoil.
3. Extension of 12663/64 Howrah-Trichy biweekly to Kanyakumari.
4. Extension of 12224/12223 Madurai-Chennai Central AC Duronto to Trivandrum via Nagercoil Town.
At present, the Bilaspur-Tirunelveli (22620/19), Kanniyakumari-Dibrugarh (15905/06) and Nagercoil-Shalimar (12659/60) weekly trains are running through Nagercoil, Trivandrum, Ernakulam, Palakkad, Erode, Salem and Katpadi route. Due to this circuitous route (210 KMs Extra), it takes unnecessarily a long time 7 hrs extra to reach the destination. This route was followed to make the train beneficial for passengers of Kerala. But, it causes a lot of time and monetary loss for passengers from Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli District passengers.
Therefore, to bring to railways’ kind notice that a great inconvenience is been experienced by the Kanniyakumari and Tirunelveli passengers. KKDRUA suggest the following arrangement which has to be done immediately for benefiting southern of Tamilnadu district passengers also for the other district passengers of Tamilnadu.
1. Extension of Chennai Central-Bilaspur weekly 12852/51 express to Nagercoil via Madurai, Tirunelveli
2. Extension of Chennai Egmore-Dibrugarh weekly 15929/15930 express to Kanyakumari via Madurai
3. Extension of Chennai Central-Shalimar weekly 22826/22825 express to Nagercoil via Madurai
If the above demands are materialized, it leads district people to reach state capital ‘Chennai’ easily. Also, railway administration may be aware that the Chennai-Madurai-Nagercoil route is a highly patronized sector. These trains if extended will provide additional connectivity to Chennai from southern districts, and would be very helpful for the passengers. KKDRUA strongly oppose long-distance trains operating via Kerala. KKDRUA need long distance trains only through via Tirunelveli, Madurai, Chennai route.
Hence in the better interest of passengers, KKDRUA humbly request railway administration to consider the above demands, for a favorable action.