Less patronage gives room for personal distancing on trains

As Chennai is out of bounds, passengers unlikely to fill the coaches in the near future, says TTE

Lower patronage for train services, partially resumed from Monday after over two months, is helping the Southern Railway enforce COVID-19 safeguards on board during the current lockdown. Norms such as personal distancing and wearing of face masks, which form part of the Standard Operating Procedure, are being largely followed to prevent the spread of novel caronavirus disease among passengers.

“With the train not connecting Chennai (a major COVID-19 hotspot), the crowd is unlikely to fill all the coaches in the near future,” a Travelling Ticket Examiner said.

For instance, the number of passengers travelling in the Madurai-Villupuram special train marked only a marginal increase on Tuesday. Though on Monday, the patronage was only around 25% on Madurai-Villupuram intercity express, it went up slightly but stood less than 50% of the capacity, according to railway sources in Madurai.

The railways has laid down a series of safety measures like thermal scanning for all passengers before entering the platforms and allowing only asymptomatic passengers to board the trains.

Similarly, masks are must for passengers to enter the platforms and also while travelling.

Ticket checking on stations

Checking of tickets are done before allowing passengers into the platform. Besides, passengers are guided to the right coaches at the platform by the same team. Hence, the role of the TTEs onboard has reduced to a significant extent.

As a result, only two TTEs are manning this train up to Villupuram and back.

“The ticket charts verified with the passengers are handed over to the TTEs. All that the TTEs need to do is to compile the charts from all stations – Madurai, Dindigul, Tiruchi and Ariyalur – and hand them over to the officials at Villupuram.

“The TTEs could also attend to any emergency situations,” a railway official said.

All precautions:

For the TTEs, the railway administration has provided masks, face shields, gloves and hand sanitisers.

“Only the young and willing TTEs have been deployed in onboard duties. Even those with comorbidities have been avoided,” said a TTE.

With less number of passengers, social distancing is, by and large, possible even inside trains, said a TTE.

Another precautionary measure is that only packed food items, like biscuits, cool drinks and water bottles are sold by the pantry car staff.

“The passengers have been advised to carry their own food to avoid infection,” a railway official said.

Avoid train travel

A railway official said that passengers should make use of the train services only for emergency and important journeys.

They can make use of internet booking instead of walking into the railway booking counters. Similarly, passengers should avoid children and aged people for train travel for their own safety, he said.

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