Boz of train fully booked Ooty lost tourists
When Ravikumar wanted to take off to Ooty on a holiday this summer, little did be realise that getting there would be the most difficult thing of all! Train tickets to Coimbatore and Mettupalayam were fully booked for the next month or so, and he was at his wits end trying to figure out how to get to Coimbatore at least.A similar dilemma awaited hundreds of families who planned to holiday in the hills of Ooty and Kodaikanal. Kids going to their grandparents' places - as diverse as Tirunelveli, Bangalore and Coimbatore - were on tenterhooks until the last minute for their tickets. Each day however, newspapers hold good news for such families: an announcement - "Southern Railways will run XXX summer special to clear the extra rush in the Chennai Egmore-Nagecoil sector to the following timings. Bookings commence on XXX." Normally bookings commence at 8am and the reservation enters waitlist as soon as 8:10am in most sectors. Such is the demand for sleeper berths on most trains, across all classes.
"This year, the hottest sectors are the Chennai-Nagercoil and the Chennai-Bangalore sectors followed by the Chennai-Coimbatore routes," says S Anantharaman, Chief Passenger Transportation Manager - Southern Railways, "We have scheduled a total of 73 summer specials in the Nagercoil sector alone," he informs us. And why not? A visit any day to Chennai Egmore or Chennai Central will reveal the truth. Masses of people jostling for even a toehold on any unreserved coaches can be seen. The unlucky ones with kids and no way to even enter the coaches, will curse their luck and try a bus instead. The demand in these sectors does not cool off anytime.
