Cancellations, chaos at Central

20/03/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,CHENNAI

With Southern Railway cancelling several trains, people packed the few that were running on Thursday. R. RaguR_Ragu

People wanting to get to their native places from the city are rushing to the Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. MGR Chennai Central railway station, not realising that the Southern Railway has cancelled over 95 long-distance trains.

With 50 trains already suspended due to low occupancy on Wednesday, an additional 45 services were cancelled on Thursday. A total of 155 train services have been cancelled throughout the country as part of the Railways’ measures to prevent COVID-19.

The Railways on Thursday cancelled several services, including the Chennai-Vijayawada Jan Shatabdi Express, Chennai-Coimbatore Shatabdi Express, Chennai-Hazrat Nizamuddin Duronto Express, Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram Express, Mangaluru-Thiruvananthapuram Express, Chennai-Bengaluru Express, Tiruchi-Thiruvananthapuram Express and Mangaluru-Coimbatore Intercity Express. The services are being cancelled between March 20 and 31.

A total of 23 special-fare summer trains, that were to be operated in April, are being cancelled.

A senior Railways official said that to discourage people from undertaking non-essential travel, concession tickets for senior citizens and students were being withdrawn with effect from Friday.

The cancellation of several trainscreated panic among passengers who were to leave the city.