Thiruvananthapuram ; Thousands of railway passengers in Kerala are demanding that the Southern Railways add more special trains in the state to guarantee better connectivity to other districts. The protesters have asked the Railway Board to restart train services such as the Parasuram Express which runs from Nagercoil to Mangalore and covers the whole of Kerala, as well as the Vanchinad Express – an inter-city service running between Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam.
Demands to restart more trains were provoked after the Southern Railways decided to stop three existing train services in Kerala recently, leaving hundreds suffer. But after protests from several quarters and MPs writing to the Centre, the Railway Board then withdrew this decision.The trains that were going to be stopped were the Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode Jan Shatabdi Express and the Thiruvananthapuram -Ernakulam Venad Express. These train services were only just restarted in May 2020, during Unlock 3 phase of relaxations.
The railways cited low occupancy as the reason for stopping these services. It was not profitable to run the trains as the Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode Jan Shatabdi Express had recorded less than 24 percent passengers and the Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur trains had less than 13 percent occupancy. The Venad Express also had been recording lower passengers since it restarted post lockdown. According to reports, the Railway Board had planned to stop all trains running below 25 percent occupancy.However, passengers have explained the reasons for the low number of passengers in these trains.
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