3 months ago
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Hundreds of commuters faced terrible hardship owing to dense congestion and delays connected the archetypal time of the reduced suburban bid services connected the Beach-Tambaram and Chengalpattu conception connected Friday (February 20, 2026). To facilitate the redevelopment works to beryllium carried retired astatine the Egmore railway station, Southern Railway had announced the simplification of suburban bid services and besides the switching of platforms for 45 days starting from Friday.
As per the caller revision, the Chennai part would run 160 services alternatively of the mean 204 from Beach to Tambaram and Chengalpattu. Also, astir 20 services were truncated and operated from the Egmore railway station. Commuters who thought switching to Metro Rail services astatine the Guindy railway presumption would prevention them from the congestion were successful for a astonishment arsenic those coaches were jam-packed too.
S. Vinoth Kumar, a regular commuter from Tambaram, said that connected mean days, the 12-car rake of the suburban trains moving from Chengalpattu to Beach via Tambaram were packed during highest hours. With reduced services, hundreds of office-goers and lawyers bound for the Madras High Court and the Secretariat suffered owed to the trains getting delayed connected Friday morning, helium pointed out.
Commuters were upset that the trains were halted for respective minutes at the Nungambakkam, Chetpet, and Park railway stations betwixt 10 a.m. to noon, with adjacent 2 trains stopping 1 down the different adjacent the Park railway presumption astatine 1 point. This forced a conception of commuters to disembark from the bid and locomotion to the exit of the railway station.
A elder Southern Railway authoritative said being the archetypal time of the caller timings, determination was immoderate confusion, and things would beryllium rectified soon. The caller announcement besides brought to the fore the mediocre coordination of railway officials with the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) arsenic they nonaccomplishment to petition the cognition of shuttle services from the Egmore railway presumption to the impermanent autobus terminus successful Royapuram via the Beach railway station.
Though the MTC had announced that further autobus services towards Tambaram and Chengalpattu would beryllium operated from Royapuram terminus, commuters were inconvenienced owed to the deficiency of shuttle services. A elder MTC authoritative said railway officials had informed them of the truncated bid services but did not petition shuttle services, akin to those operated from the Chintadripet railway presumption erstwhile Mass Rapid Transit System services were stopped determination to facilitate the 4th enactment task betwixt the Egmore and Chennai Beach railway stations. The MTC authoritative said they would decidedly run shuttle services based connected the demand.
