The recent announcement of the extension of the Mayiladuthurai-Mysuru Express up to Cuddalore Port Junction has come as a surprise to commuters of the main line in the delta region.
According to sources, the Railway Board has instructed the Southern Railway and South-Western Railway authorities to extend the Mayiladuthurai-Mysuru Express up to Cuddalore Port Junction with stops at Sirkazhi and Chidambaram from an early convenient date.
As per the proposal, the Mayilduthurai-Mysuru Express, which arrives at Mayiladuthurai by 6.50 a.m., will reach Cuddalore Port by 8.35 a.m. In the return direction, it is scheduled to leave Cuddalore Port Junction by 3.40 p.m. to reach Mayiladuthurai by 5.30 p.m. from where it will leave by 5.55 p.m.
Interestingly, the Karaikal-SMVT Bengaluru Express (Unreserved) arrives at Mayiladuthurai around the same time of 7 a.m. but reaches Cuddalore Port Junction by 9 a.m.
Meanwhile, the Western Railway has notified the extension of the Weekly Special Train (09419/09420) between Ahmedabad Junction and Tiruchi Junction through the main line till this month end.
This train leaves Ahmedabad every Thursday morning to reach Tiruchirappalli on Saturday morning and in the return direction it leaves Tiruchirappalli on Sunday morning to reach Ahmedabad on Monday night.
The only solace the main line commuters could derive was the direction issued to the Southern Railway authorities to augment the availability of the Mayiladuthurai-Tiruchi-Mayiladuthurai Express (Unreserved) (16233/16234) service from an ‘early convenient date’ in such a way that the service is available on all days of the week with the same departure and arrival schedule, sources pointed out.
However, the long-pending demand for doubling the Thanjavur-Villupuram section and introducing a day express between Thanjavur and Chennai Egmore in addition to the Cholan Express remain unfulfilled.
