Commuters upset as congestion, delays plague Chennai Beach–Tambaram train service on day 1 of revised schedule

Commuters face delays and congestion on the first day of reduced suburban train services due to Egmore station redevelopment.

Hundreds of commuters faced severe hardship owing to heavy congestion and delays on the first day of the reduced suburban train services on the Beach-Tambaram and Chengalpattu section on Friday (February 20, 2026). To facilitate the redevelopment works to be carried out at the Egmore railway station, Southern Railway had announced the reduction of suburban train services and also the switching of platforms for 45 days starting from Friday.

As per the new revision, the Chennai division would operate 160 services instead of the normal 204 from Beach to Tambaram and Chengalpattu. Also, nearly 20 services were truncated and operated from the Egmore railway station. Commuters who thought switching to Metro Rail services at the Guindy railway station would save them from the congestion were in for a surprise as those coaches were jam-packed too.

S. Vinoth Kumar, a regular commuter from Tambaram, said that on normal days, the 12-car rake of the suburban trains running from Chengalpattu to Beach via Tambaram were packed during peak hours. With reduced services, hundreds of office-goers and lawyers bound for the Madras High Court and the Secretariat suffered due to the trains getting delayed on Friday morning, he pointed out.

Commuters were upset that the trains were halted for several minutes at the Nungambakkam, Chetpet, and Park railway stations between 10 a.m. to noon, with even two trains stopping one behind the other near the Park railway station at one point. This forced a section of commuters to disembark from the train and walk to the exit of the railway station.

A senior Southern Railway official said being the first day of the new timings, there was some confusion, and things would be rectified soon. In a press release, Southern Railway said the redevelopment works involved foundation work for a foot overbridge and departure concourse. This work is being done near the track crossing structures of platforms 10 and 11, which were dedicated suburban lines capable of supporting train speeds upto 55 kmph with simultaneous reception and dispatch facilities. However, with operations now being shifted to platforms 05 and 06, which do not provide similar operational flexibility, the trains are run at a speed of 15 kmph. This had caused the delays. Considering the needs of both long-distance passengers and daily commuters, every effort has been made to operate train services efficiently for passenger convenience, the release added.

Friday’s incident also brought to the fore the poor coordination of railway officials with the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) as they failed to request the operation of shuttle services from the Egmore railway station to the temporary bus terminus in Royapuram via the Beach railway station.