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Lack of general coaches hit Kerala passengers

Central Railway removed three coaches out of the six from 22113 Kurla LTT-Kochuveli superfast express

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Many passengers got a rude shock at the station when they noticed that the express train had only three general coaches instead of six
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Hundreds of commuters to Kerala were inconvenienced after Central Railway (CR) authorities removed three general coaches from the 22113 Kurla LTT-Kochuveli superfast express that left from Mumbai on Tuesday evening.

The train generally has 6 general coaches as part of its 21-coach configuration but several people who had arrived at the station got a rude shock when they saw a train with just half the number of general coaches. 

CR officials said the huge number of special trains that have to be run during summer is creating problems. “There is a shortage of general coaches and the more the number of special trains, more the shortage of these coaches is felt. We completely understand how tough it gets for everybody,” said an official. 

The numbers of special trains keep increasing every year even though rolling stock remains more or less the same, said officials. For instance, between March and December last year, Central Railway ran 1,332 special trains and added 1,920 coaches on a day-to-day and temporary basis to various trains during various holiday and festival seasons. It also permanently added 132 coaches to 68 trains. 

Western Railway during the same time ran 1,032 special holiday trains and added over 14,000 coaches to various trains, on a temporary basis. “The problem is that the demand for special trains being done almost in real time and we are left scrounging for coaches at our yards and workshops. Sometimes, we have to remove a few coaches from some train and add it to another. However, it is never an easy decision because it is always a 'rob Peter to pay Paul' sort of a situation,” explained an official. 

According to CR officials, the shortage of general coaches is mainly due to the unprecedented rush being seen on the rail routes between Mumbai and cities in Uttar Pradesh like Varanasi, Lucknow and Gorakhpur and also in Bihar like Patna and Chappra. “A unreserved special from CST to Gorakhpur on Tuesday left with more than 3,000 passengers and similarly all 10 reserved coaches of a Mumbai-Varanasi special on Saturday got booked completely an hour after it opened on Friday,” said a CR official. These specials, officials said, are extracting a heavy toll on the coaches in CR's fleet. 

However, commuter organisations are fuming. Sashikumar Nair of the Keraleeya Kendra Sanghtana's Yatra Samiti said, “Who is responsible for his sorry state of affairs? Long-distance trains, especially over so many hours cannot be some lottery. Imagine the plight of all these people who are are packed so inhumanly into these general coaches? This is worse than local train travel,” Nair said. His group of volunteers were distributing safe journey handbills at Thane when they witnessed the chaos around the Kurla LTT-Kochuveli express. 

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