MADURAI: A public appeal has been made to the Southern Railway to consider extension of Trivandrum – Nagercoil passenger train to Tirunelveli for the convenience of passengers. This request came from Mr.B.Siva Kumar, Member, Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (DRUCC), Madurai Division, Southern Railway, who had written a letter to the top railway officials about this long pending issue for appropriate action. He is based at Nagercoil in Kanniyakumari district.
He had pointed out in his letter on 11th December 2021 that there are so many passengers who travel through train from Trivandrum and Nagercoil to Tirunelveli during morning and evening hours for educational and official purposes. Passengers are facing more difficulties in direct train service from Trivandrum to Tirunelveli as they do not have adequate passenger trains. Nagercoil-Tirunelveli is the only section in Southern Railway which does not have any passenger trains for 9-10 hours in both directions.
Recently, the Southern Railway had decided to convert Nagercoil – Coimbatore 56319/56320 passenger train to Express service and remove the stoppages of Tovalai, Aralvaymozhi, North Panakudi, Sengulam, Melappalaiyam in Nagercoil – Tirunelveli route without providing any alternative arrangements. To compensate for the removal of the small station stoppage, Mr.B.Siva Kumar had given his suggestion to the Southern Railway authorities and Madurai Division top officials for daily passenger train services between Tirunelveli and Trivandrum.
1. Extension of Trivandrum- Nagercoil 56311/56316 passenger train to Tirunelveli
To cater to the passengers of Trivandrum and Kanniyakumari districts, the existing 56311/56316 Trivandrum-Nagercoil passenger train can be extended to Tirunelveli via Nagercoil Town. “This will help these passengers in the form of a morning/evening connection to Tirunelveli, which they lack at the moment. It will also be of use to all passengers to travel to Tirunelveli,” the DRUCC Member of Madurai Division of Southern Railway Mr.B.Siva Kumar had said in his appeal to the railway officials.
2. Clubbing Tirunelveli – Nagercoil and Nagercoil – Trivandrum passenger train service
He also suggested clubbing of Tirunelveli – Nagercoil 56718 Passenger and Nagercoil – Kochuveli 56318 passenger clubbing as Tirunelveli – Kochuveli direct passengers via. Nagercoil Town. . Also, in the return direction club the Trivandrum – Nagercoil passenger and Nagercoil– Tirunelveli 56717 passengers to operate as Trivandrum – Tirunelveli direct passenger.
