Title - Railways relief for season ticket travellers

Kochi: In the wake of the recent protests by season ticket holders over their right to travel in sleeper class coaches, the Railways has now come out with a clarification that certain day-trains running during the peak hours have been identified in which they would be allowed to travel between certain sections.

“The Railways receive many complaints regarding unauthorized occupation of reserved accommodation by commuters. Even the High Court had passed orders to regulate the entry of commuters in reserved coaches”, said the railway PRO.

“The said train witnesses heavy rush on every working day and we’d allotted two reserved coaches for season ticket travellers.

Now we have increased them to four coaches. We’ve also identified at least eight day trains in which they can travel”, the official said.

The trains are Hyderabad-bound Sabari Express (S-12 and S-13), Trivandrum-Mangalore Malabar Express (S-6 upto Kottayam), Mangalore-Trivandrum Malabar Express (S-5 & S-6 from Kottayam to Trivandrum), Alleppey-Chennai Express (S-7 Alleppey-Palghat), Trivandrum-Chennai superfast (S-10 & S-11 till Ernakulam) and the Alleppey-Bokaro Express (S-2 & 4; ST 1&3 Alleppey-Palghat).

This is in addition to the two fully unreserved trains – the 16303 Ernakulam - Trivandrum Vanchinad Express and 16341 Guruvayoor - Trivandrum Intercity Express which arrives at Trivandrum before 10 am.