Caught unawares, some passengers miss Vaigai Express in Madurai

Passengers shocked to find Vaigai Express left Madurai at 6.40am, not 7.10am, as announced. Railway officials said they had informed passengers via SMS & PA system. Some missed train despite efforts to reach station; one had bought unreserved ticket 5 mins before departure.

Some of the passengers who arrived at Madurai junction on Sunday morning to board the Chennai-bound Vaigai Express were in for a shock when they learnt to their dismay that the train had already left.

They were unaware that Southern Railway had advanced its departure time from 7.10 a.m. to 6.40 a.m. with effect from October 1.

A family of four were seen running on the platform, only to see the rear coach of the train going away from their view at the platform end.

A railway official claimed that the change of timing had been intimated thorough SMS and calls to those who had booked their tickets. Besides, multiple announcements about the change in timing were manually made through public address system since 5.45 a.m. at Madurai and Dindigul stations.

However, some of the passengers who had missed the train complained that the railway authorities had failed to intimate them about it.

A woman, Maheswari Pon Saravanan, who had come to visit her friend at Alanganallur on the occasion of a temple festival, had missed the train. “I had booked the tickets under tatkal on Friday for Vaigai Express since I did not want to get caught in the road traffic in Chennai while travelling by bus. But, now I am caught in Madurai itself after making it to the railway station by travelling in bus and an autorickshaw,” she said.

She claimed that when she checked the train timing on the website on Sunday early morning, the change in departure time did not reflect on the site.