Good news for suburban commuters

As Many As Ten Stations In Chennai Will Get A Facelift Under The New Railway Budget, With Passengers Getting Basic Facilities Such As Food, Drinking Water, Toilets And Waiting Rooms

V Ayyappan | TNN
July 4, 2009

Chennai: New-look railway stations, a non-stop train to New Delhi, peak-hour ladies-special trains on suburban routes and emergency medical services — these are some of the new features commuters in the city can enjoy, thanks to the railway budget which focusses on enhancing passenger amenities.
Suburban railway stations
of Avadi, Chennai Beach, Chennai Chetpet, Chennai Park, Perambur Carriage Works, St Thomas Mount, Tambaram, Tiruninravur and Tiruvallur will get a facelift under the new Adarsh Station — or model station — scheme. These stations will have drinking water, adequate toilets, catering services, waiting rooms, dormitories for ladies and better signages.
Suburban stations will also have train information system with automated announcements. Tiruvalangadu, a nonsuburban railway station located beyond Tiruvallur, will also be developed under the scheme. These stations are part of the 309 across the country that will be developed under the scheme.
The railways have also strengthened its resolve to develop Chennai Central as a world-class station under the public-private partnership as the station has been included along with 50 others, including Thiruvananthapuram, for the ambitious project.
Chennaiites will also get better medical aid at railway stations as the budget envisages ambulance services at Chennai along with Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata and Bhubaneswar. Bed linen will be a lot cleaner as railways will introduce a a pilot project on improved linen management to significantly improve quality of washing through modern mechanised automated laundries.
Apart from the nonstop train to Delhi, Chennai also gets a new train to Madurai. Sources said the nonstop train would significantly cut down travel time to Delhi, even though it might have have to stop for refilling water, food and changing crew.
The budget also announced a feasibility study for introduction of energy-efficient rail-based system for providing connectivity to existing suburban network in an economically efficient manner.
Though there are not many new trains out of Chennai, the recommendations in the budget received a mixed reaction from commuters. Suburban commuters, especially women, are happy that they would be getting a ladies-special train during peak hours but they want the railways to sustain the passenger amenities being introduced.
“It’s good that railways did not hike the fares. But they should maintain the new-look stations once they are built. In most cases, facilities installed at railway stations do not function,”said T Sadagopan, a consumer activist and a regular commuter on the Arakkonam-Chennai suburban line.