Plea for Nagercoil - Bangalore daily Express train

Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli district residents association of Bangalore has demanded the railway authorities to commence operation of a daily express train service between Nagercoil and Bangalore before Deepavali. This train service was earlier announced in the railway budget. Thousands of people from southern districts are working in IT companies in Bangalore and other industries in Dharmapuri, Hosur and adjoining areas. For more than 15 years, people from the southern districts have been asking the railways to operate a daily train service from Nagercoil to Bangalore via Saleem and Hosur. Meanwhile in the railway budget tabled in February 2013, it was announced that a daily train service from Bangalore to Nagercoil will be operated through Hosur, Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Dindigul, Tirunelveli.

   Though other trains which announced in the budget have started operation, the Nagercoil - Bangalore daily express train has not commenced yet. Festivals like Bakrid, Deepavali, Christmas, New Year and Pongal are upcoming and therefore if the authorities commence operation of the train, it will really benefit the southern people.

New Coimbatore-Rameshwaram exp has good response!!!

The response to the maiden run of the Coimbatore to Rameswaram, to be flagged off on September 17, has been overwhelming. The reservation for the train began on September 8 and had already crossed 50 per cent in just two days. If this was the response in two days and that too for a service on a week day, services during weekends would bring 100 per cent benefit, G.K. Nagaraj of the Coimbatore Railway Struggle Committee said.
 

   Train No 16618 Coimbatore – Rameswaram Weekly Express will depart Coimbatore at 19:45 hrs on every Tuesday and arrive Rameswaram at 06:45 hrs on the next day. In the return direction, Train No 16617 Rameswaram – Coimbatore Weekly express will depart Rameswaram at 19:00 hrs on every Wednesday and arrive Coimbatore at 06:40 hrs on the next day. Enroute these trains will stop at Tiruppur, Erode, Karur, Tiruchchirappalli, Pudukkottai, Chettinad, Karaikkudi, Devakottai Road, Sivaganga, Manamadurai, Paramakudi,Ramanathapuram, Mandapam. Train No.16617 will stop at Coimbatore North also. These trains composition of 1 Air-Conditioned 2-Tier Sleeper, 3 Air-Conditioned 3-Tier Sleeper, 13 Sleeper Class, 2 General Second Class, 2 Second Class (General/Disabled Friendly)-cum-Luggage-cum-Brake Van = 21Coaches.


   Since this train passes through Tirupur, Erode, Karur, Tiruchirapalli, Pudukottai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram, it serves the travel needs of those who had migrated from the southern districts to Coimbatore in search of employment and setting up businesses, pointed out Coimbatore MP P.R. Natarajan.
 

   Coimbatore remained without rail link with many of these districts because of the Coimbatore-Dindigul –Palani gauge conversion work, said R. Raveendran of the Struggle Committee. The service also brought to an end the near domination of private buses in the night, said Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee members Jameel Ahmed and U.K. Sivagnanam. Meanwhile, the Struggle Committee has appealed to the Railway Ministry to consider increasing the frequency of the train. Also, the train users suggested that the departure time of the train at Coimbatore needed to be delayed by an hour to enable office-goers to plan their journey.
 

Naming the train
Rail activist Mr. Ravi wanted the Rameswaram Express to be named as Textile City or Cotton City Express since Coimbatore housed the South India Textile Research Association, South India Mills Association, Central Cotton Research Institute, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Textile Management and also had several textile mills.
He also added that just as the Coimbatore — Mannargudi — Coimbatore Mannargudi daily overnight train was named Semmozhi Express and the Thanjavur — Chennai Express as Uzhavan Express, the Coimbatore — Tirupati — Coimbatore Express should be named Kovai Srivari Express.

Two train services to benefit Coimbatore

An increase in frequency of service of the Coimbatore — Tirupati Inter-city Express from three days to four days and flagging off of the Coimbatore — Rameswaram — Coimbatore Weekly Express on September 12 and September 17, respectively, is expected to bring cheer to rail users in Coimbatore. Both the services were announced in the Union Railway Budget in February. Now, the Southern Railway and Salem Division are making arrangements to introduce the services.
    
   At present, Train Number 22616 (CBE-TPTY) is operated on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays leaves Coimbatore at 6am and reaches Tirupati at 1.40pm. In the return direction, Train Number 22615 is operated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and leaves Tirupati at 2.50pm and reaches Coimbatore at 10.40pm. As announced in the budget, Salem Division is planning to increase the frequency of the train from three to four days by bringing in the operation of the services on Thursdays as well.
 

   Similarly, under a rake sharing arrangement (sharing of coaches and locomotive) with the Coimbatore — Rajkot Express (Train No 16613/16614), Salem Division plans to introduce the Coimbatore — Rameswaram — Coimbatore Weekly Express (Train Number 16617/16618). The rakes of the Coimbatore — Rajkot Express lie idle at Coimbatore from Tuesday morning (2am) to Thursday night (11.45pm.) Under the rake sharing arrangement, Train Number 16617 will depart Coimbatore at 7.45pm on Tuesdays to reach Rameswaram on Wednesday morning at 6.45am. In the return direction, it would depart as Train Number 16618 from Rameswaram at 7.00pm and reach Coimbatore at 6.40am on Thursdays. The rakes would be taken up for maintenance at Coimbatore during day time on Tuesday and Thursday.

Temporarily Change in Express timings due to maintenance work

Due to the maintenance work in rail path between Chengalpattu - Tindivanam, the timing of 6 express trains has been changed temporarily from 6th - 8th september, 2013.

• According to that, for three days, Vaigai Express from Madurai will arrive at Chennai Egmore with a delay of two hours instead of 2:40 pm. 
• Same like that, Vaigai Express which starts at 1:20pm from Chennai Egmore to Madurai  Vaigai Express will have a halt for 50 minutes in Villupuram. 
• Chennai Egmore - Karaikudi Pallavan Express train will start from Chennai with a delay of 90 minutes.  
• Cholan Express from Tiruchirappalli will arrive Chennai Egmore with a delay of one hour.
• Also, Chennai Beach - Melmaruvathur Passenger train has been partially cancelled between Chengalpattu and Melmaruvathur. 
• The Chengalpattu - Melmaruvathur passenger train has been canceled completely.

34 coaches of Uzhavan Express have bio-toilets

Uzhavan Express that was flagged off from here on September 1, qualifies to be called a ‘green express’ as bio-toilets have been fitted into 34 of its 36 coaches. “Except first AC and AC two-tier coaches, all the other 34 coaches have been fitted with bio-toilets,” said Southern Railway officials.
    Indian Railways, at present, is running 1,400 coaches with 3,800 bio-toilets in various trains, according to a Southern Railway press release issued here on Thursday. In the first four months of the current year, more bio-toilets have been fitted into coaches than the entire number fitted in the last three years. The number of bio-toilets fitted into passenger coaches from April to July this year was 2,285, against 1,337 bio-toilets fitted during 2012-13, 169 during 2011-12, and 57 during 2010-11.
    The first bio-toilet-fitted train, Gwalior-Varanasi Bundelkhand Express, has been running since January 2011. After receiving encouraging feedback from the users and railway maintenance staff, the pace of fitment of these bio-toilets into passenger coaches has been ramped up. In its endeavour to take all necessary steps to keep station premises clean, Indian Railways is now manufacturing all-new conventional passenger coaches fitted with bio-toilets. A colony of anaerobic bacteria convert human waste mainly into water and small amount of gases (methane and CO2) in the bio-toilets has been fitted underneath the lavatories in coaches. The gases emit into the atmosphere and waste is discharged after chlorination onto the track. Human waste thus does not fall on the railway track. This procedure is environment-friendly and improves the working condition for the railway track staff.
    The toilets, according to the press release, will not function if they are chocked with plastic bottles, paper cups, cloth rags, sanitary napkin, nappies, plastic poly bags and pouches. The environment-friendly, low cost and robust technology has been developed jointly by the Indian Railways and Defence Research and Development Organisation. The bacteria used in the bio-toilet has been collected and analysed by DRDO from Antarctica and the efficiency of this system has been tested in extreme climates and conditions like those at Siachen Glacier. The anaerobic bacteria can survive in extreme climates and when exposed to common disinfectants.

Uzhavan Express skips Mambalam station!!!

Making its second journey since inauguration on Sunday, Uzhavan Express from Chennai Egmore junction missed Mam­balam station on its way to Thanjavur on Monday.

   Over 60 travelers who reached the station on time and had valid (reserved) tickets stood on the platform and helplessly watched the train cross Mambalam railway station. 
The loco pilot of Uzhavan Express forgot to make the scheduled stop at Mambalam. And he did not realize missing a scheduled stoppage until he reached Tambaram. But, the RPF personnel at Mambalam station  informed their counterparts in Tambaram and managed to get travellers onboard the same train. The RPF team sent the “left out” travellers by an EMU and also kept Uzhavan Express waiting at Tambaram. 

   "Our intervention caused a 30-minute delay. It could further increase the punctuality pressure the loco pilot faces. But, we were happy when we saw the travelers heave a sigh of relief after boarding the train at Tambaram,” said an RPF officer. “It is quite common for loco pilots to fall short on punctuality, but this is unheard of. Such incidents are very rare,” remarked a railway source in the know of things. The loco pilot could be someone who regularly pilots southbound trains that do not have stoppage at Mambalam. With Monday being the second trip of Uzhavan Express, the loco pilot could have followed his earlier schedule and overlooked the stoppage list of this train No. 16183, the source added.

Velankanni special train has been recommended to run daily

Due to the long time demand of Kanyakumari District People, Velankanni special train is operating from Nagercoil during the festival seasons in Velankanni. Kanyakumari district has a large Catholic population. The flow of traffic towards Velankanni was perennial all through the year. But the devotees did not have direct train services to Velankanni, for which demands have been raised by various sections of people, over the last few years. Since regular trains were not available for Velankanni, passengers had demanded special trains for the annual Velankanni festival last year, but Southern Railway did not heed to these requests. This year too, large number of pilgrims would be visiting Velankanni from Kanyakumari district for the festival. Absence of train and adequate bus services force these pilgrims to commute in hired cabs or buses. For their convenience, the Southern Railway has been requested to operate special trains between August 29 and September 8 from Nagercoil to Velankanni.

   Now, it is  recommending to run this special train (Nagercoil-Velankanni) as a daily express train for the benefits of Kanyakumari people.

Details on the trains' new number

1. Chennai Egmore - Mangalore Express train number 16107/16108 (the new number: 16859/16860)

2. Chennai Central - Mysore Kaveri Express

Train number 16021/16022 (the new number: 16221/16222)

3. Chennai Egmore - Rameswaram Express train

Number 16101/16102 (the new number: 16701/16702)

4. Chennai Egmore - tiruchendur Express train

Number 16105/16106 (the new number: 16735/16736)

5. Karaikal - Ernakulam Express train number

16187/16188 (the new number: 16865/16866)