Do you know why in Chennai the suburban trains are punctual now?
Posted on: 13/Aug/2019 9:58:13 AM
Many office goers belonging to the Chennai city use the suburban trains. It is often said that these trains do not maintain correct time and are not punctual in the peak hours and cause problems for the office goers.
The sensational information is when compared to the previous years the southern railways has been able to improve the punctuality of the suburban trains now. This despite dozen suburban trains gets cancelled almost every weekend. Punctuality figures represent the total percentage of trains that arrives at the terminating station on time. Point is a train could be delayed at the intermediate stations but if it reaches Beach, Moore Market complex, Thiruvallur etc on time then the train is punctual.
It has been shown by the data that the improvement has come on the Chennai Beach- Tambaram- Chengalpet South BG section and Chennai (Moore Market Complex) - Thiruvallur section. When comparing April-May in 2019 to the same period in 2018, the punctuality of Chennai Beach- Tambaram- Chengalpet South BG section has improved by 3 to 4 points. The punctuality of the Chennai (Moore Market Complex) – Thiruvallur section has improved by around 7 to 8 points.
If Y-O-Y figures are taken into consideration then, on the Beach-Chengalpet section there has been an improvement of 7 points. The data also shows that Chennai- Velachery MRTS punctuality at 98-99% has been maintained.
An official belonging to the railways spoke about how the extensive track maintenance has led to the operation of trains at better speeds. It is worthy to mention that the punctuality of the suburban trains is regarded as an important issue because the incumbent GM, Mr. Rahul Jain observes it keenly. If the suburban trains are delayed, then the office goers of Thiruvallur and Chengalpet corridors resort to blockades and this is another reason for the punctuality of the suburban trains.
Later it was mentioned by a senior official that few specific issues were sorted out and it has made the trains punctual. He spoke about how suburban trains to Pattabiram Military siding and Avadi competed for the same path with the express trains and how this was sorted out. Trains being shifted from slow to fast to slow lines on Arakkonam-Thiruvalklur section were also sorted out.
From the earlier one train in 10min, the frequency has been increased to one in 7 minutes in the peak hours of time on the Chengalpet section. This was as per an official.
