RailEnquiry

The new railway time table released on Monday has disappointed people of Coimbatore region. Benefits projected for Coimbatore in the railway budget were the introduction of the Coimbatore — Rameswaram — Coimbatore weekly express, extension and routing of the 12653/12654 Mangalore — Tiruchirapalli — Mangalore weekly express up to Puducherry and renumbering of the train as 16857/16858). For both these services, the date of introduction has not been announced.

The time table merely states that the date of commencement of service would be notified later.

Board's advice

The Coimbatore — Rameswaram — Coimbatore Weekly Express (Train No 16617/18) brings little cheer to people of this region since contrary to the Railway Board’s advice to southern Railway to introduce the train from Coimbatore on Saturdays and from Rameswaram on Sundays, the dates of service have been changed in the time table, said R. Raveendran of the Coimbatore Railway Struggle Committee.

In Rake Sharing Arrangement (RSA) with the Coimbatore — Rajkot — Coimbatore Express (Train No 16613/14), the Coimbatore — Rameswaram train has been introduced on Tuesdays from Coimbatore and from Rameswaram on Wednesdays when the rakes lie idle prior to departure of the Rajkot Express. This arrangement denies exclusive rakes for Rameswaram Express and also the chances to increase the frequency of the train to Rameswaram in the future, said rail activist S. Ravi.

Midweek services to Rameswaram might, comparatively, have less patronage compared to weekend services.

Special services

Earlier, when the train services to Rameswaram was introduced as a special service, it was a weekend service resulting in full patronage.

The extension of the Mangalore — Tiruchirapalli weekly express up to Puducherry would provide yet another weekly train connection for Coimbatore with Puducherry and Mangalore, G.K. Nagaraj, convener of the committee said.

Already, there is one weekly service with Puducherry with Train No 16856 from Mangalore on Fridays giving the overnight train connectivity with Puducherry during the weekend and a train in the return direction (Train No 16855) from Puducherry on Fridays.

Fringe

benefits

The other fringe benefits for Coimbatore include the yet-to-be introduced 16565/66 Yesvantpur — Mangalore — Yeswantpur weekly express providing the much required connectivity with Bangalore (Yesvantpur) on Monday night and towards Mangalore as a day train on Monday mornings.

The other train is the bi-weekly 17605/06 Kacheguda (Hyderabad) — Mangalore Central — Kacheguda Express towards Kacheguda on Thursdays and Fridays and towards Mangalore on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The other passing through train to be introduced is 18657/18658 Visakhapatnam — Kollam — Visakhapatnam weekly express at Coimbatore towards Kollam on Thursday midnight and towards Vishakapattinam on Saturdays, added Jameel Ahmed and U.K. Sivagnanam of the Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee.