Train travel to southern towns from Chennai to become faster – Times of India

CHENNAI: Passengers who board trains from Egmore to the southern towns via Mayiladuthurai will now be able to reach their destinations faster as railways has commissioned a 229km electrified line on Villupuram-Cuddalore-Mayiladuthurai-Thanjavur and Mayiladuthurai-Thiruvarur stretches.
Completed at 423crore, the line was inaugurated on Sunday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It will help railways run trains faster between Egmore and Kanyakumari. Trains from Egmore used to change engines to diesel in Villupuram and trains from the south used to change to diesel locomotives in Trichy because the stretch was not electrified. This used to take at least 20 minutes.
“This time is now saved. Trains can save at least 30 minutes. The running will be smooth and more trains can be accommodated on the route one after the other when the need arises,” said an official.
Chennai Egmore-Villupuram-Vridhachalam-Trichy chord line was electrified in 2010 and all chord line trains were run with electric traction. However, all the main line express, passenger and goods trains on Villupuram-Mayiladuthurai-Thanjavur-Trichy stretch were run on diesel.
With the completion of electrification between Villupuram-Mayiladuthurai-Thanjavur and Mayiladuthurai-Tiruvarur sections, all the main line express trains/passenger trains and goods trains can be run on electric traction.
The official said it will save 31,333 litres of diesel worth 26 lakh for passengers and good trains a day. This will lead to a savings of 14.61 lakh a day on fuel cost.
Regular travellers are of the view that railways should transfer the benefit to the passengers by introducing more trains and speeding up trains in the time table. Edward Jeni, secretary, Kanyakumari District Railway Users’ Association, said: “Railways should ensure that the time saved is reflected fully on the time table. This is often not done. We need more trains.”
Jeni said railways should run more trains to the southern towns.
“Though doubling of line has been completed on the Chennai-Nagercoil stretch, travel time has come down only by 10 minutes. This is nominal. Only Tejas Express has benefited from the doubling.”