RailEnquiry

Chennai: A cozy air-conditioned journey could elude you even while possessing a confirmed AC-II train ticket these days. Dozens of passengers aboard Madurai-bound Pandian Express experienced that late Tuesday when the air-conditioning system of B1 coach failed, leaving them sweating and fuming.

After being seated in a sealed air-conditioned coach sans windows from Egmore to Chengalpattu for little over an hour, annoyed passengers alighted at Chengalpattu and protested against the appalling hospitality, forcing the crew to halt at Chengalpattu.

The protesting passengers wondered why they should pay AC fare when the cooling system would not work. “The AC did not function properly even at Egmore. As time progressed, we felt like we were sitting in a furnace as the coach did not have windows and there was no ventilation. How did they attach a coach without a functioning AC?” angry passengers argued as AC mechanics aboard the train struggled to identify the snag.

Meanwhile, the train remained detained from 10.20 to 11.50 pm. After hectic parleying, the train crew and local railway officials, who could not mobilise ‘competent’ department mechanics there, somehow convinced the passengers to board the train by promising to rectify the problem at Villupuram.

Passengers’ misery continued when railway mechanics at Villupuram, after attending the fault for 30 minutes, found the problem too complex to rectify there.  As time ran out and fatigue set in, the passenger’s gave up, much to the relief of the train crew, who comfortably started to Tiruchy with a dysfunctional AC coach.