‘Slowed down’ by Fast local trains heading towards Chennai Central

As they chug in from Arakkonam and Tirutanni and head towards Chennai Central, fast local trains do not have a platform on the fast line to halt at Ambattur railway station. As a result, commuters taking these trains to reach Ambattur have to do an extra train trip. Ambattur Rail Commuters Welfare Association wants Southern Railway to carry out yard remodelling and provide this much-needed platform

In the factories at Ambattur Industrial Estate, one reason for punching in late always holds water, all the water from the 173-hectare Ambattur Eri. The late-arriving staffer just needs to mumble a two-word response, “Fast local”, and walk past the supervisor without waiting for the reaction, predictable anyway. The supervisor would nod knowingly and return to the work at hand; no questions for the late-comer to fend off.

The Fast local trains from Arakonnam and Tirutanni heading towards Chennai Central “slow down” those with Ambattur as destination when the home stretch is in sight, hence this rare understanding from supervisors and bosses.

This is not an error of commission but omission. The Fast locals chug as swiftly as ever, but they chug past Ambattur railway station, ignoring it with the disdain of a privacy-valuing celebrity for paparazzis. They stop beyond, at Villivakakm station, and these commuters have to cross over to the other side, take a regular suburban train to Ambattur. Long-distance commuters heading to addresses in Ambattur that have boarded the Yelagiri Express are also subjected to that extra train trip, but from Perambur railway station, as this service halts there, after giving Ambattur railway station the cold shoulder.

By any chance, if these Fast locals are behind schedule due to challenges on their routeS, that extra train trip would be the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back, says L. Saravanan, president of Ambattur Rail Commuters Welfare Association.

That is the long explanation for why “Fast locals” are synonymous with late punch-ins at the factories in Ambattur Industrial Estate. This writer assumes readers know this is a hyperbolic narration of an everyday problem for workers travelling long on the rails to their workspaces in Ambattur Industrial Estate. They may not be serial late punchers, but haveing to do that extra train trip is a strain on their mind, if not their body as well.

To the question why these Fast locals do not oblige these commuters, the answer is simple: they cannot. There is no platform on the fast line at the Ambattur railway station for them to halt. On the return trip, when they trundle out of Chennai Central and head back to the other end of their travel band, namely Arakonnam, Tirutanni and Yelagiri, they stop at Ambattur railway station. They stop now, because they can. A platform has been provided for these Fast locals (including the Yelagiri Express) on this side.