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Kochi: Commuters protest cutting down of coaches

KOCHI: Hundreds of regular rail commuters on Alappuzha-Ernakulam stretch protested against the shortage of coaches on the Ernakulam-Alappuzha passenger train on Wednesday. They demanded that railways should run one more Memu train on the stretch during peak hours to address the rush of passengers.


Holding banners, passengers alighted the train at all stations between Alappuzha and Ernakulam and took out marches to the station masters’ office. Thiruvananthapuram railway division was running 14 to 16 coach passenger train earlier. But the division replaced the old train running via Alappuzha with 12-coach Memu nearly one month ago.

Passengers demand to retain the 16-coach train or run one more Memu on the stretch in the morning and evening. But railways has no plan to execute the demand. “Another group of passengers gave us a representation demanding the retention of Memu since it has more speed and reaches destinations on time. Currently, we have not taken any decision on meeting the demand of protesting passengers,” said a railway official.

Memu departs Alappuzha at 7.20am and reaches Ernakulam at 9am.

Meanwhile, All Kerala Railway Users’ Association requested the railways to make necessary arrangements to meet the demands of passengers. “Since it is a route which witnesses heavy passenger traffic, railways should make necessary arrangements to meet the demand,” reads the request sent to additional divisional commercial manager and senior divisional commercial manager of Thiruvananthapuram railway division.

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