Notice to railways over extension of trains

The Federation of Consumer and Service Organizations in Trichy has sent a legal notice to the Indian Railways over three issues: To withdraw the announcement extending the Pallavan Superfast Express to Karaikudi; to operate Rockfort Express from its original destination and to provide sufficient coaches to the non-PRS passengers or restrict selling journey tickets only to the capacity of the seats available.

The notice addressed to the chairman of the Railway Board, New Delhi, the general manager, Chennai and the DRM, Trichy mentioned that Trichy topped the list of top 10 destinations from Chennai. The notice sent by advocate D V Veerasamy, on behalf of the organization, said that the railways "instead of introducing new trains to accommodate the ever increasing demand and provide seats to the non-PRS passengers, have planned to reduce the accommodations through extension of existing trains to other places. This is purely disservice to the existing passengers of Trichy."

The members of the federation recently sat on a one-day token hunger strike in Trichy demanding restoration of trains with their original schedule prior to the budget. Moreover, the notice mentioned that at Karaikudi, there are no restrooms available and there was no facility for cleaning and maintaining the locos and coaches. "Above all, there are no security arrangements to safeguard the stationary coaches and there is great safety threat to the passengers and to coaches," the notice said.

The joint director of public grievances at the general manager's office in Chennai, B Nageswara Rao replied to the federation on Tuesday saying, "The matter is being referred to the concerned authority for necessary action."