Kochi: Railways are making tall claims of operating trains on time after the completion of the second track work on the Kayamkulam-Ernakulam section via Kottayam.
Many regular commuters ask, were the railways operating trains on time in sections where double lines existed earlier like Kayamkulam-Chingavanam reach?
No, is the answer as trains used to run behind schedule in this sector by 10 minutes to 20 minutes or even more on an average day.
Trains like the Venad express bound for Shoranur reached Changanassery late even as the ones like Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram reached on time. Ironically, the railways had no answer as to why the delay was caused in the route where the double line existed.
The delay was blamed on the absence of a double line in the Ettumanoor-Chingavanam sector.
Actually it was a man-made delay in Ettumanoor-Kottayam-Chingavanam sector
as the Thiruvananthapuram side-bound trains were detained at Ettumanoor until the second platform or first platform at Kottayam was vacant.
Instead, they could have detained
trains on the Kottayam outer even if all the platforms are engaged in Kottayam. The case was the same for trains coming from the Chingavanam side.
Railway passengers claimed that it remains to be seen how efficiently the trains are going to be operated post commissioning of the second track.
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