Clamour grows in Keralam to augment coaches, introduce more MEMU trains

Faced with recurrent overcrowding on trains, passenger organisations in Keralam have yet again sought urgent steps to augment the number of coaches in MEMU trains, other short-distance trains and inter-city express trains.

Innumerable commuters who relied on National Highway-66 to travel to other districts have shifted from buses and private vehicles to trains, in the wake of the NH stretch being widened to six lanes in different parts of the State and the accompanying traffic hold-ups in the vicinity of worksites. In this situation, the Railways must allot more coaches to the existing MEMU trains and introduce more MEMU trains from different districts to Ernakulam, said Liyons J., general secretary of Friends on Rails, a collective of train passengers.