Line congestion causes delay on rail routes in Kerala

T'puram: Morning trains from the city continue to get delayed due to line congestion, causing inconvenience to the people who commute to other cities for work and education.
Delays and inadequate trains cause crowding because people get accumulated in en route stations.
Most of the morning trains from the city — Venad Express, Parasuram Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Sabari Express and Madurai-Punalur Express — were delayed by 10 to 20 minutes at en route stations on Tuesday.
Venad Express from Thiruvananthapuram was delayed at some of the en route stations like Kayamkulam but reached Ernakulam on Tuesday at a better timing than Monday.
Parasuram Express was delayed by 10-30 minutes at a few en route stations and reached Ernakulam late by 15 minutes on Tuesday.
Commuters will continue to reach workplace late as railways do not have slots to accommodate more passenger service trains and to introduce Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (Memu) trains as work and funding to improve line capacity are not uniform across the state.
As express and passenger trains share the same tracks, a delay of one train impacts all the services on the route.
P Krishnakumar of Thrissur railway passengers' association said the overcrowding that happened in Venad Express on Monday is a usual phenomenon on all first working days after vacation. "But railways should run trains after understanding the ground reality."
The railways should convert the passenger trains to Memu services, which are faster and more spacious, add more coaches to trains, speed up work to install automatic signals, and then start work to lay third and fourth tracks, he added.
"The capacity of Venad Express has been increased to the maximum. But more coaches can be added to trains that now have 12-coach rakes. The Guruvayur-Madurai train has only 12 coaches. Too many people prefer trains because road work has made traffic sluggish."
Liyons Joseph from Friends on Rails said that commuters are facing inconvenience because railways changed the timing of the Venad Express and Palaruvi Express when Vande Bharat was introduced. "Railways should consider the interest of people when a new train is introduced," he said.
A railway official said that the line is congested, and steps are being taken to enhance route capacity. The speed of trains too has increased in the last few months, and end-to-end punctuality is better.