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The Hindu
13-07-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Wagon of a freight train carrying fuel catches fire near Tiruvallur railway station
A wagon of a freight train carrying fuel caught fire near Tiruvallur railway station resulting in several long distance and suburban services cancelled on Sunday (July 13, 2025). The fire and rescue services personnel were involved in dousing the fire for more than two hours even as overhead power supply for electric trains were cut off as safety precaution. A senior official of Southern Railway said a fire accident occurred in a wagon of a freight train carrying fuel between Tiruvallur and Egattur railway station resulting in thick smoke spreading in the locality. The fire immediately spread to other wagons resulting in five wagons damaged in the fire accident. Fire and rescue services personnel, along with railway officials, were immediately deployed and are actively managing the situation at the site. Restoration work is in progress, and normal train operations will resume at the earliest. A press release issued by Southern Railway said a total of eight long distance trains including the Vande Bharat (20607) to Mysuru from Dr. MGR Chennai Central railway station and the Kovai Express (12675) from Central railway station have been fully cancelled. Also, eight express trains bound to the city from various destinations have been short terminated at Tiruvallur and five express diverted via Gudur section. This has resulted in severe hardships to the passengers. The suburban train services on the west section from Arakkonam and Tiruvallur have been stopped and instead services operated only from Avadi. Egattur which is designated as halt railway station is a transport hub for freight and passenger trains. The railway has announced helpline numbers for the passengers - 044-25354151, 044-24354995.
New Indian Express
07-07-2025
- New Indian Express
Passengers cheer as Southern Railway advances chart preparation 8 hours in advance
CHENNAI: Southern Railway on Saturday began preparing reservation charts eight hours ahead of a train's scheduled departure. As a result, rail passengers with waitlisted tickets on intercity trains such as the Kovai Express, Vaigai, Pallavan, Brindavan, Madurai Tejas, Lalbagh Express, as well as Vande Bharat and Shatabdi Express, departing between 5.40 am and 7.30 am from their respective originating stations, will now receive their ticket status by 9 pm to 9.30 pm on the previous day. So far, passengers received this information only four hours before departure, often between 1 am and 4 am. The zonal railway implemented this revised charting policy following a directive from the Railway Board. The move is intended to give passengers more time to plan their travel and to ease overcrowding in unreserved coaches, which often results in unreserved passengers occupying reserved compartments. Rail enthusiasts said the passengers with waitlisted tickets on overnight trains such as Pandiyan, Cheran, and Nilgiri Express, scheduled to depart between 9.15 pm and 10 pm, will now know their ticket confirmation status by 1 pm. This gives them enough time to explore alternative train services heading to Madurai or Coimbatore, if their overnight tickets remain unconfirmed. Travellers by early morning trains stand to benefit the most According to Southern Railway's revised order, chart preparation timelines are now as follows: For trains departing between 12 am and 5 am and from 2 pm to 11.59 pm, charts will be finalised eight hours in advance; for trains leaving between 5 am and 2 pm, charts must be prepared by 9 pm the previous night. A section of passengers welcomed the move, saying it ends uncertainty over early morning ticket confirmations. Frequent traveller S Viniyaga Murthi recalled waking at 3 am to check the status of waitlisted tickets for the Bengaluru Double Decker Express. 'The train departs at 7.25 am. As our tickets weren't confirmed, we ended up travelling unreserved,' he said. However, R Pandiyaraja, former Southern Railway Users' Consultative Committee member, said, 'Expanding terminal capacity in Tiruchendur, Tirunelveli, and Madurai and filling vacant loco pilot posts is the real solution,' he added.
