Southern Railway to study feasibility of lengthening platforms at MRTS stations to operate 12-car EMUs

Southern Railway plans to study platform lengthening at MRTS stations to accommodate 12-car EMUs for operational consistency.

The Southern Railway plans to study the feasibility of lengthening platforms at railway stations on the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) section, between Chennai Beach and Velachery, to accommodate 12-car electrical multiple units (EMUs) for future operational consistency. This comes in the wake of Southern Railway’s ongoing plan to convert all suburban trains into 12-car EMUs, since some stations on the MRTS section are only able to accommodate nine-car ones.

A senior official of the Chennai division of Southern Railway pointed out that of the four sections, 12-car EMUs were only operated on the Beach-Chengalpattu via Tambaram route previously. Platforms were lengthened at all the railway stations on the west and north sections to accommodate these EMUs. At present, nine-car EMUs are only run on the MRTS section.

The operation of 12-car EMUs affords Southern Railway the flexibility to operate trains across multiple sections, helping improve efficiency and connectivity. On the MRTS section, eight of the 17 stations — Fort, Park, Chintadripet, Chepauk, Thiruvallikeni, Lighthouse, Mundagakanni Amman Koil, and Thirumayilai — have the platform length to accommodate nine-car EMUs.

The official said that since the MRTS section was built as an elevated corridor over the Buckingham Canal, land acquisition would not be necessary to increase platform length, though the State government needed to give the sanction. The MRTS section is being extended to the St. Thomas Mount railway station to cater to commuter needs and for operational uniformity to resume cross-sectoral services (between Arakkonam, Tiruvallur, and Gummidipoondi and Velachery) on the section.

Consumer activist T. Sadagopan, a resident of Avadi, said the stoppage of cross-sectoral services from Tiruvallur and Avadi to Velachery had inconvenienced hundreds of people with workplaces in Thiruvanmiyur and Taramani. At present, they have to switch to the MRTS section after getting down at the Moore Market Complex station to reach their destinations.

Even as Southern Railway plans to carry out a feasibility study for platform lengthening at MRTS stations, commuters and activists of Madipakkam, Adambakkam, and Nanganallur are irked over the delay in the completion of the MRTS Extension Project. They demanded that train shuttle services be operated till the Adambakkam railway station, which is one of two stations that were built between Velachery and St. Thomas Mount, the other being Ullagaram-Puzhithivakam.

Social activist V. Rama Rao said that when the MRTS Project to Velachery was delayed, train services till Thiruvanmiyur were operated on a single track. He demanded that similar train services be operated to the Adambakkam railway station, with commuters changing trains at the Velachery MRTS station. These arrangements could help commuters temporarily, as the extension project was likely to be delayed further due to the Chennai Metro Rail track being built above the MRTS tracks.