Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Rail commuters seek ticket counters on both sides

— Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam

UNDERUTILISED? The ticket counter constructed on the northern side of the Perambur Loco Railway Station seen closed.

CHENNAI: For a railway commuter without a season pass, purchasing a ticket for suburban train travel has never been easy.

Several railway stations have ticket counters only on one side of the tracks, forcing commuters to take the long foot overbridge or the risk of crossing the tracks to reach the ticket counters. In some stations, the foot overbridge is quite far from the ticket counters. Though Southern Railway has introduced computerised ticketing and has installed Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) in a number of railway stations, long crowds are commonly seen at ticket counters.

R. Radha, a resident of Pudur near Ambattur, said a number of residential colonies had come up on the northern side of Ambattur Railway Station. “Senior citizens here find it really hard to take the foot over bridge to reach the ticket counter on the other side.” “And by the time we manage to buy a ticket and reach the platform, we miss the train,” she added.

The Chennai Beach-Tambaram section has a few railway stations with ticket counters on both sides, but the western section of Chennai Central-Arakkonam has ticketing facilities only on one side.

Residents of Jamalia, Otteri and Perambur said a counter on the southern side of the Perambur Railway Station would be of immense help. S. Kumar, a resident of Jamalia, said sometimes, commuters were stopped by Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel or officials. “We would have to explain that we came to the other side only to buy a ticket. My friends have even had to pay a penalty because officials thought they were travelling without a ticket.”

In a few railway stations, counters are either closed or are operated only for a limited period. The Villivakkam Railway Station has only one full-time ticket counter.

A counter was constructed on the northern side of the railway station about five years ago, was closed in 2006. After numerous representations to the officials, the ticket counter is now kept open only during rush hour. In the case of Perambur Loco Railway Station, a newly constructed ticket counter remains closed.

Southern Railway Divisional Railway Manager Subodh Kumar Kulshrestha told The Hindu that poor patronage from commuters was the reason. The Department did not want to post clerks in counters with low demand as they were already facing a shortage of clerks, he added.

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