The Southern Railway must augment MEMU services, speed up track-doubling through Alappuzha, introduce automatic signalling and add more general and de-reserved coaches in trains, in order to lessen commuting woes in the State, passenger associations have demanded, ahead of the meeting between Southern Railway General Manager R.N. Singh and MPs from Kerala during the weekend.
More MEMU trains during peak hours and replacement of short-distance passenger trains with MEMU rakes would bring some relief to commuters who were forced to travel in crammed general coaches of trains such as Parasuram Express, said Liyons J., secretary of Friends on Rails, a conclave of daily commuters from Kollam and Alappuzha. The demand gains relevance since instances of commuters fainting in crammed coaches has become a regular occurrence.
The Railway must also reduce the running time of trains by introduction of automatic signalling system. A MEMU service must be introduced in the Kollam-Palakkad corridor, while MEMU sheds at either end must be developed to host 16-coach MEMU rakes. The Railway ought to revisit the running time of the Vande Bharat train through Alappuzha, so that it did not delay other trains. It must also operate a train in the Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode route after 10 p.m. Travel concession to senior citizens must be restored, he said.
