Railway bid to improve patronage

While making certain the protection of passengers and the railway workers, the Thiruvananthapuram Railway Division will give prime precedence to bettering the patronage of trains, together with long-distance ones, that also hovers round 35% and to growing items site visitors.

“The continuing poor patronage for inter-city trains and the long-distance express trains to places such as New Delhi is a concern as the revenue had been hit badly by the pandemic-induced lockdown. The priority is to increase the traffic and patronage while ensuring the safety of passengers and railway personnel,” R. Mukund, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), advised The Puucho.

Railways are sustaining vigil as SARS-CoV-2 instances are being reported amongst its personnel in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam.

“The decision to operate more long-distance trains, unlock measures and relaxations are expected to fetch us more traffic in the coming days,” Mr. Mukund stated.

The divisional railway is but to regain the misplaced floor within the cargo of parcel cargo.

“Of late, there has been an improvement in the movement of parcel goods and essential commodities from here through the railway network. But it is nowhere near the figures during the corresponding period last year,” the DRM stated.

Reaching out

To improve items prepare site visitors and improve earnings, Railways have already reached out to logistic service suppliers to transport fruits, rubber and different merchandise, Kerala Automobiles for ferrying e-autos, FACT, and DP World, the operators of the Vallarpadam container transshipment terminal.

“We have approached Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Ltd. to make use of Kochuveli to transport boulders needed for the 3.1-km breakwater of the deepwater terminal at Vizhinjam,” Mr. Mukund stated.

RoRo service

The Divisional Railway Manager stated there was enormous potential for the ‘roll on, roll off’ (RoRo) service for vans from West Hill in Kozhikode to Ernakulam.

Already Southern Railway, in collaboration with Konkan Railway Corporation, had performed a trial run of the RoRo service for vans between Surathkal in Karnataka and Kozhikode.

Technical feasibility of working RoRo companies up to Ernakulam was being explored. Besides fetching income for Railways, this could assist decongest the street corridors, he stated.