Kochi: Despite Prime Minister’s tall promises of making railways competitive, trains services in Thiruvananthapuram division are operated in inefficient manner.
The Tirunelveli-Palakkad Palaruvi Express (16791) was running 40 minutes late on September 21.
The train started from Tirunelveli on time and arrived at Kollam Junction on time at 04.15 am.
The ghost of lethargy gripped the train as it entered Thiruvananthapuram division as it was cleared from Kollam 25 minutes late.
The delay further increased and the train reached 40 minutes behind schedule at Kottayam at 0746 hrs against its scheduled time of 0705 hrs.
Interestingly, the loco pilots were religiously running the train as slow as possible in some reaches. Adding insult to the injury, the train was detained for another 30 minutes at Piravam road.
Ironically, the Railways Public Relations Officer was not picking the phone when tried to contact by thenewsskerala.com to know the reason for the delay.
Thankfully, the Divisional Manager responded and attributed the delay to a goods train getting stuck due to technical problem. But he was shocked to know that the train was already running late by about one hour.
Thanks to the lethargic attitude of the railway staff in the division which gives little value to the promise of the Prime Minister.
The Railways have not been able to discipline the inefficient work force which has affected the passengers who have not benefitted by
the doubling of the Kayankulam-Ernakulam sector using crores of public funds.
The other day a Kollam – Ernakulam Memu (16310) was detained in the outer of Ernakulam junction for about one hour on September 13.
At a time when the country is celebrating 75 years of independence, the railways have improved considerably across the country barring a few divisions like Thiruvanathapuram.
The railway bosses should realise that the first train in the country was operated about 170 years back on March 12, April 16, 1853
from the then Bombay’s Bori Bunder station to Thane on during the British era.
Kerala got its first train from Tirur to Beypore on March 12, 1861. The train services from Soranur to Ernakulam was taken up by the British after the ruler of Kochi agreed to foot the expenses.
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