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Why are suburban train services not ready yet to start operating in Chennai?
Posted on: 29/Oct/2020 9:13:08 AM
For the economic activity to revive, the TN state government has been insisting about the resumption of suburban train services in Chennai. The truth is that the railway doesn`t seem prepared to make the travel safer and trouble free on three lines straddling the Chennai city.
It is now said that this is totally different from CMRL that has done lots of work at its metro stations for the safety of the commuters and made sure that the commuters followed Covid-19 protocol.
The shocking piece of information is that the suburban stations in Chennai remain rundown except a small change. It has been brought to light that most suburban stations have fading paint marks on the floor before the counters and on the platforms for the sake of social distancing.
Point is that nobody follows social distancing when workmen special services are being operated in the mornings and in the evenings. Truth is the railways authorities haven’t taken steps for improving the stations and it is now said that when the suburban services start in November the commuters would find the stations are the same.
Various issues of the suburban stations are unclean approach paths, broken taps, dusty benches and locked toilets etc. It is important to note that the stations at Chennai Beach-Tambaram lines were repainted but very few are accessible to the commuters.
In some stations, the lines painted on the floor at the ticket counters and on the platforms for social distancing are not of standard quality. Various colours have been used like red colour in Villivakkam and yellow in Guindy etc.
The repair works have just started in Tambaram and in Guindy stations though these stations have been closed since April. In these stations, the passengers hop over the construction debris to board trains and that is dangerous.
There is huge pressure on the railways to maintain the safety of the commuters now with more than 30,000 employees of state and central government plus health workers already travelling by workmen special services. It was pointed out by a frequent traveller from Tiruvallur to Chennai Central that RPF and ticket checkers ask the commuters to wear facemasks.
