Southern Railway had volunteered to assist a few of the passengers who could not get into Train No. 12840 Chennai Central-Howrah Superfast Mail on 11th June in Chennai , to secure accommodation under the Emergency Quota.
A high ranking official from the Chennai Division contacted Vinny Yadav of West Bengal and family members when they had already confirmed tickets in Coach S-3 but could not access the train because unauthorised persons entered the coach, and occupied their reserved berths. With an assurance that he would refund them for the tickets which were not utilized for travel, he advised them to purchase new ones on Train No 12842 Chennai Central-Shalimar Coromandel Express leaving Chennai on June 12 and offered to assist them get their berths confirmed under Emergency Quota.
Many passengers who had valid tickets could not board the Chennai-Howrah Superfast Mail from Sleeper Class compartments as unauthorized persons got into it while empty rake of the train was being brought to platform. The situation did not change despite complaints made to TTE, Station Manager and Station Inspector. After the departure of this train, some families became stuck at the platform said Mr.Vinay Yadav.
“Almost all coaches filled up very shortly with ticketless travelers or those having waitlisted/unreserved tickets. Everybody else had no choice but to sit or stand in luggage along its way since whole cabin was full. No one could enter as there way for entrance was locked or tightly packed up with men and women waiting outside it. Even if senior citizens, women, children are able to push through such a crowd they wouldn’t be able to move around nor lie down nor use toilet during this long journey. Railways provided no help whatsoever so we checked into lodgings here until morning of June 11th we booked rooms at Lodges in Hsraur…over Rs 25000 has been spent already…”, he said
Railway’s response
The Division Railway Manager of Chennai Division opted to respond on social media. In reply to my post on ‘X’, he replied that Southern Railway ran four weekly holiday special trains to Howrah via Chennai apart from seven regular train services. The rush on June 11th could have been because of the festival holiday. Measures had been taken to reduce overcrowding in the coaches. Even so, the number of Sleeper Class coaches was increased in Train No 12840 Chennai Central-Howrah Superfast Mail and Train No 12842 Chennai Central-Shalimar Coromandel Superfast Express trains .
