What are railway tracks for ??

Picture Courtesy: indiarailinfo.com

Ladies and senior citizens traveling in trains from Trivandrum Central in the 16.10 hours ( Chennai, Egmore Ananthapuri Express )and 17.05 hours (Trivandrum Nagercoil Passenger) have a quite painful story to share. Both these trains have Quilon as their starting station. By the time it reaches Trivandrum, it is fully-packed, as it is office hours. People working in and around Trivandrum manage to finish their working hours and rush into the train as soon as possible. Nobody can wish to miss the train.

But surprisingly, even after the train being almost 200% packed, nobody wishes to miss a single chance to grab in a seat to sit. Though many passengers get down at Trivandrum, but the number of passengers who then enter the train from here is almost innumerable. The daily travellers are very used to this crowd, as a result young men, ladies, girls and boys, jump into other side of the platform and manage to stand between the tracks of platform number 1 and platform number 2 ( as these trains mostly arrive in platform number 1). As the train arrives, they jump from the door close to them climb the stairs and enter the train before the people in the train actually get down. And then by the time the people try entering in the from the platform, those who entered from the tracks manage to get seats and make a settlement there, as if its their right to ignore the passengers waiting so long on the platform to enter the train. Not everyone find this comfortable to jump down the platforms,

The amazing fact is that no railway authority finds it as a nuisance. Crossing tracks is a crime all over India, but waiting between the tracks is totally acceptable for them. Question is what should be done when senior citizens or pregnant ladies who cant jump from the platform and wait between the trains end up either missing the train or get squeezed inside? Isn't it cruel to know that these people daily manage to reach the platform may be an hour back, just with a hope each day to be the first to enter the train and manage at least a standing seat. They would be definitely cursing their health and old age. There are many who find themselves helpless at this situation.

The Ananthapuri Express, now starts from Quilon, and has the last stop as Chennai, Egmore. Previously it used to start from Trivandrum and go till Chennai, Egmore. People traveling from Trivandrum city were really unhappy, because when the train reaches Trivandrum its almost fully packed. If a train which had so many passengers had changed its starting station, why wasn't an alternative arranged? The train which starts from Trivandrum at 17.15 hours also starts from Quilon. But the announcement says as 'the train from Trivandrum to Nagercoil will arrive shortly on ...' Whom is the railways trying to fool? The only train in evening with Trivandrum as a start station is at 18.05 hours, the Nagercoil Passenger. 

The authorities who almost close their eyes to the scene where the tracks turn into platforms, will find it very difficult to manage if the passive passengers raise a question to them. Its high time that the southern railways open its already opened eyes to see and take proper actions against this, else there will be soon a time when people will respond to it and hit back. KSRTC which is almost sunk in debt, should by now silently send a message to the railways that how their pensioned employees are cursed in social media's for not giving proper and polite service.