Southern Railway to lease suburban trains
Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com
Chennai:16.04.2019
Is it possible for a group of companies or educational institutions to rent a suburban train from Chennai, and also brand it with their name?
As far as officers in Southern Railway are concerned, the answer is a resounding yes.
Railway officials are also open to the idea of running an air-conditioned EMU after approval from the railway board, at a premium.
Officials of Krea University, which is set to come up near Sri City about 75km from Chennai, held talks with railway officials last month regarding this, highly placed sources said.
Sources told TOI that the university had approached SR looking at possibilities of transporting 100-200 of its teaching and non-teaching staff from Chennai on a special suburban train.
The nearest railway station to Sri City is either Tada or Sullurpeta, travelling to each of which takes about two hours by regular suburban service from Chennai Central.
The logic behind the approach was that most of the executives who travel to Sri City either hire or drive their own cars from the city, which takes 2-3 hours one way. Not only is this tiresome, but also expensive.
Sources said that after initial discussions, railway officials offered a bouquet of options.
One of them was running an exclusive coach on a suburban train. Another was a three-coach suburban special exclusively for the university staff. This would be manned by a railway protection force (RPF) officer and a ticket collector and would stop at any station of the university’s choice.
Add-on facilities like branding the train, putting up notice boards inside for announcements, installing coffee vending machines and others were offered.
For this, SR had proposed a cost of about ₹1 lakh for a round trip, which would work out to ₹65 per person. Though this is costlier than a regular suburban train ticket, it’s cheaper than what a cab would cost for a trip to Sri City, sources said. Talks are still on, the sources added.
Such proposals come basically from railway’s pedestrian earnings from suburban services, which comprises 50 per cent of SR’s total passenger traffic.
For instance, in 2018-19, SR carried 410 million suburban passengers which earned ₹207 crore, while the remaining 427 million non-suburban passengers earned ₹5,000 crore.
“Corporates can also bear this expense from their CSR funds, while benefit through the branding,” railway sources said.
The logic behind the approach was that most of the executives who travel to Sri City either hire or drive their own cars from the city, which takes around three hours one way
Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com
Chennai:16.04.2019
Is it possible for a group of companies or educational institutions to rent a suburban train from Chennai, and also brand it with their name?
As far as officers in Southern Railway are concerned, the answer is a resounding yes.
Railway officials are also open to the idea of running an air-conditioned EMU after approval from the railway board, at a premium.
Officials of Krea University, which is set to come up near Sri City about 75km from Chennai, held talks with railway officials last month regarding this, highly placed sources said.
Sources told TOI that the university had approached SR looking at possibilities of transporting 100-200 of its teaching and non-teaching staff from Chennai on a special suburban train.
The nearest railway station to Sri City is either Tada or Sullurpeta, travelling to each of which takes about two hours by regular suburban service from Chennai Central.
The logic behind the approach was that most of the executives who travel to Sri City either hire or drive their own cars from the city, which takes 2-3 hours one way. Not only is this tiresome, but also expensive.
Sources said that after initial discussions, railway officials offered a bouquet of options.
One of them was running an exclusive coach on a suburban train. Another was a three-coach suburban special exclusively for the university staff. This would be manned by a railway protection force (RPF) officer and a ticket collector and would stop at any station of the university’s choice.
Add-on facilities like branding the train, putting up notice boards inside for announcements, installing coffee vending machines and others were offered.
For this, SR had proposed a cost of about ₹1 lakh for a round trip, which would work out to ₹65 per person. Though this is costlier than a regular suburban train ticket, it’s cheaper than what a cab would cost for a trip to Sri City, sources said. Talks are still on, the sources added.
Such proposals come basically from railway’s pedestrian earnings from suburban services, which comprises 50 per cent of SR’s total passenger traffic.
For instance, in 2018-19, SR carried 410 million suburban passengers which earned ₹207 crore, while the remaining 427 million non-suburban passengers earned ₹5,000 crore.
“Corporates can also bear this expense from their CSR funds, while benefit through the branding,” railway sources said.
The logic behind the approach was that most of the executives who travel to Sri City either hire or drive their own cars from the city, which takes around three hours one way
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