Chennai: Thousands of commuters relying on suburban train connectivity continued to suffer for the second consecutive weekend as the railways cancelled 33 EMU services on the Tambaram-Chennai Beach stretch for four hours on Sunday.Though MTC operated special buses between Tambaram and T Nagar and Washermenpet, GST Road witnessed slow-moving traffic on Sunday afternoon as the influx of private vehicles and additional MTC buses led to congestion.Last week, Southern Railway began track maintenance between Tambaram and Chennai Beach. To facilitate the same, suburban services on the stretch were cancelled over two consecutive Sundays. While 41 EMU services were cancelled during the line block from 10.30am to 3.30pm last Sunday, the disruption was reduced by an hour this week, with 33 services suspended between 11am and 3pm. The MTC operated 50 additional buses between Beach and Tambaram stations on July 5 and July 12, in addition to its regular services.However, several commuters unaware of the cancellations reached stations as usual, only to find trains off the schedule. Tambaram was one of the worst hit stations as many arriving from districts had to board MTC buses due to non-plying of suburban trains.“We got down on GST road and reached the station via the skywalk only to be told that the services are cancelled till 3 pm. We had to return to the Tambaram bus stand with luggage to board the bus to Parrys Corner. Railways should have made an arrangement to announce the cancellation through a public addressing system in bus stand to reduce the hardship of passengers. We could have saved at least 30 minutes,” said Gangaikondan of Mayiladuthurai.Also, the escalators for the footover bridge on both ends of GST Road were not working, making it tougher for senior citizens. Another passenger said that railways could have carried out the work during non-operational hours, as EMU services are an irreplaceable and economic public transport system. “As a family of five, we would have reached Nungambakkam from Tambaram by spending just ₹50. But it would cost ₹50 for a single person to reach Nungambakkam as there are no direct buses,” said V Moorthi of Mannivakkam.Railway officials said the track strengthening has been completed on the stretch and added that there will not be any further suspension of operations. “The track strengthening work cannot be carried out at night. The non-peak hours on Sundays were selected to carry out the work after multiple deliberations to keep commuters’ inconvenience minimal,” said the official.The officials said that similar line blocks will be announced in the Arakkonam section for maintenance work in the coming days.Deputy Commissioner K Prabakar, in charge of Tambaram city traffic, said a team of 60 traffic police personnel had been deployed in Tambaram to regulate the crowd at the bus stand, and the additional buses had been deployed to cater to them on Sunday. “As a greater number of buses were operated, traffic slowed down to some extent, but the vehicle movement didn’t completely halt,” The GST road became almost traffic free around 5 pm,” the official added.
