The Southern Railway has speeded up 88 trains.

Of these, 46 trains have been speeded up by 20 minutes or more; 35 trains by between 21 and 60 minutes; and seven trains by between 61 and 90 minutes.

This is one of the main features of Southern Railway’s timetable that will be effective October 1, said S Anantharaman, Chief Operations Manager, Southern Railway.

The speeding up of trains will continue as doubling works gets completed in phases, he told newspersons on the release of timetable by Vashishta Johri, General Manager, Southern Railway.

Like passenger trains, the speed of goods trains will also be speeded up, said Johri.

New trains coming

Anantharaman said six trains originating in SR will be introduced; three new trains will pass through SR and two trains have been extended. These new trains were announced in the Railway Budget and will be launched before March 2017, he said.

Asked why the timetable was being released just a day before it takes effect, thereby causing hindrance to passengers travelling on Monday, Anantharaman said the timetable this time had been prepared by South Western Railway and it had been given to Southern Railway only on Thursday. Every year, SR releases the time table on September 30.

Annually, SR gets nearly one lakh copies of the timetable, of which nearly 90 per cent gets sold, he said.

Change in timings

Changes in timing have been effected in respect of certain trains. The significant changes are: train No 16853 Chennai Egmore-Tiruchirapalli has been advanced to leave at 7.40 a.m. instead of 8.15 a.m. Chennai Central to Vasco da Gama (No 17311) will leave at 3 pm instead of 1.45; Chennai Central to Hubli (17313) will leave at 3 p.m. instead of 1.45 p.m. and Chennai Central to Mumbai CSTM will leave at 11.55 p.m. instead of 10.50 p.m., he said.

SR officials said mobile-phone alerts will be sent to passengers who have booked on trains for which the timing has been revised. Details of the revision would be advertised on Saturday. “Passengers will not be affected in any way. We will take care of the passengers,” said Johri.

On running of more special trains to ease congestion during festive seasons, Johri said it is being planned depending on availability of coaches and rail path.

Velachery-St Thomas MRTS

On extension of Mass Rapid Transit System between Velachery and St Thomas Mount, a senior SR official said the Tamil Nadu Government is in the process of acquiring land in the 500-metre stretch that has been involved in legal entanglement.

Last month, SR officials met Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary and urged him to speed up land acquisition from nearly 60 owners in the 500-metre stretch, said a senior official of Southern Railway.

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