The railroad - the sensible road ahead

As the Americans call it, it is the railroad. We know it as the suburban train, and in London, it is the tube. To many others, the modern versions are the Metro trains.

Whatever moniker suits you, the train does a lot of good to Chennai. Only, it is still in its antiquated Victorian state, rather than modernise with the times just as the Ambassadors and Fiats have given way to the Marutis, Hondas, Fords, Skodas and Toyotas. Of course, Chennai's buses also remain hopelessly primitive and the design of even new bus bodies obsolete.

As someone who uses trains everywhere (I have had occasion to use urban rail in London, New York, Washington DC, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Hong Kong) I cannot help noticing the miserably archaic train system that we have in Chennai.

The only redeeming thing about the train is its capacity to carry a large number of people. Otherwise, it is simply, hopelessly outdated in terms of infrastructure and operations.

Here is a glimpse of a station for the most recently introduced train, running on the Mass Rapid Transit System line:

To be fair, this is Fort Station, which is at the surface level. Half a kilometre from here, the MRTS goes on to an elevated section.
But look at the non-working clock, the lack of any signages for passengers indicating basic train information. The ticketing systems are simply pathetic. One has climb a steep flight of stairs to reach the ticketing office and then move to the MRTS platform.
An example of the ticketing offices of the suburban train system in Chennai is this one, at Kodambakkam on the Beach -- Tambaram line.


This office is deep inside the station, on the platform. The downside to that placement is that if you have a train coming in, you would have to sprint up to the office, to get your ticket and then jump on to the train. Being entirely manual, the ticket system is slow, involving a queue in most cases.


The worst disincentive to using the suburban railway system is the lack of automation in the form of escalators to reach the platforms. The approach to the suburban train stations, particularly those on the Beach - Thiruvanmiyur section, is invariably dark, dank and dirty. This puts off many potential travellers.