Unending queues at suburban rly stns as many counters shut

Unending queues at suburban rly stns as many counters shut

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:13.09.2021

Suburban commuters suffer long queues to buy tickets as most of the counters are still closed, although the railways have allowed people to travel by trains. Railways have also not made additional counters for people to avoid crowding while buying suburban tickets.

People have to wait for close to15 minutes at Tambaram to buy tickets during non-peak hours on weekdays. There is also a delay because railways accept only cash and are yet to offer digital options like in metro trains. This is forcing people to crowd ignoring Covid protocols. The situation is the same on the three suburban routes.

Karthik N, a commuter, said "Only a few counters are open, and no Covid protocols are being followed. All the ticketing counters are not open, although there is a crowd even in non-peak hours. The counters accept only cash. This is also making it slow."

He said, "It took me15 minutes to buy tickets at 10.30am on Wednesday and had to stand in a jampacked crowd and that too in a wellequipped station like Tambaram."

Similar is the situation at major stations where crowding has increased. T Sadagopan, a consumer activist, said, "Halt stations continue to have non-computerised counters where return tickets are not issued. The railways could have computerised these counters at these stations on the Tiruvallur route. There used to be separate counters for season tickets and for regular tickets. These are now issued from the same counters." The UTI app is not efficient all the time as there are restrictions to book tickets on it, he added.

K Baskar, a frequent commuter, said, "In Tiruvallur, the counter at south side of the station is not operated during morning peak hours. It is open from 9am to 2pm. A large number of people come into the station from this entry. It has to be open from 6am."