Commuters protest at Ponneri railway station

They demanded that Southern Railway increase services, especially during peak hours

Suburban train services on the Gummidipoondi section were disrupted for more than three hours after a large number of commuters demanding operation of additional services began protesting during peak hours in the morning on Friday. They were agitated by the Southern Railway operating few services, especially during the morning and evening peak hours on the north Chennai section. S. Purushothaman, a resident of Kanniga Nagar in Ponneri, said north Chennai, despite having a large working class population, had poor public transport facilities, lacking sufficient Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses and suburban train services. Particularly after the lockdown, residents have been facing severe hardships to reach their workplaces in the city and so they depend more on suburban trains as the ticket fares in buses are costly. In this situation, the Southern Railway had been operating limited workmen special trains. On Friday, commuters gathered together and organised a protest to highlight their grievances. Adding to their woes was the “cancellation” of train services due to track development work being carried out on the section.