Resolving Kottayam – Ernakulam Commuter Woes

The twin cities of Ernakulam / Kochi are Kerala’s economic powerhouse to which tens of thousands of people flock to on a daily basis for commerce and employment. A large chunk of these commuters utilise the three rail links to the city, two from the south (Kottayam and Alappuzha) and one from the north (Thrissur).

Kottayam is a major big town and district headquarters around 70 km due south of Ernakulam. It lies on the double electrified Ernakulam – Kottayam – Kayamkulam – Kollam – Trivandrum trunk railway line and sees massive traffic towards Ernakulam and especially so in the morning. However, there are only four trains in the morning to service this massive demand of commuters:

• 06444 Kollam – Kottayam – Ernakulam MEMU
• 16971 Tuticorin – Palakkad Palaruvi Express
• 16302 Trivandrum – Shoranur Venad Express

There’s also the 20634 Trivandrum – Kasargod Vande Bharat Express but we can safely not consider it as it is obviously not a commuter train. In fact the Palaruvi Express gets held up in between Kottayam and Ernakulam for it to pass on a daily basis.

Now, the problem is that there’s a gap of around an hour between 16791 and 16302. This has been causing massive problems. Overcrowding in both trains has reached disastrous proportions. People endure unbelievable hardship just trying to get to work; the one and half hour journey from Kottayam to Ernakulam has been described as a living hell. There have been repeated reports of commuters, especially ladies, fainting in the train due to the super dense crush load. People buy tickets and reach the platform only to find that there is no way to board the trains.

It is a no-brainer that another train, preferably a MEMU service between Palaruvi and Venad would go a long way in easing the commuting woes between Kottayam and Ernakulam. This cry has gotten louder in recent times especially after Venad Express was recently made to bypass its halt at Ernakulam Jn (South) to avoid a loco reversal (and thereby making the lives of railway employees easier) no matter the hardship to the people. This suffering has been going on for many years now but has gotten worse in recent times.

It is absolutely unacceptable that despite there are no trains for an entire hour before and after the Venad Express both in the morning and evening despite it being the heaviest rush hour on the most overcrowded route in the entire state!

However, railway administration at Trivandrum (divisional HQ) and Chennai (Southern Railway zonal HQ) seemed to be completely oblivious to any of this until now. For instance, the passengers on the massively overcrowded Palaruvi Express are thrown from the frying pan into the fire when the train is halted at Mulanthuruthi for the Vande Bharat to overtake it. If it were caught at Thrippunithura, which is just the next block and also the southern gateway to Ernakulam and the terminus of the Kochi Metro, commuters could board the Metro or buses for their onward journey. Repeated requests for this has been met with utter non-acknowledgement that it was insulting. They even dismissed all the news of passengers fainting as fake news! It required active involvement by the Mavelikara and Kottayam MPs for the railway to even acknowledge that there’s problem and to realise the anger and resentment of the common people towards them.

The New Morning MEMU

Finally, the Southern Railway has relented and tentatively allowed the introduction of a new 8-car MEMU service from Kollam to Ernakulam in the mornings to alleviate the problem of overcrowding in the morning to some extent. The new morning MEMU service between Kollam QLN and Ernakulam ERS via Kottayam KTYM will run according to the following tentative timetable:

66322/66327 Kollam – Ernakulam – Kollam (via Kottayam) MEMU (SR)

The MEMU is now a regular service that will run five days a week (except weekends). The timetable is given below

• 66322 MEMU will leave Kollam QLN at 0555 to reach Ernakulam Jn ERS at 0935 via Kottayam.
• 66327 MEMU will leave Ernakulam Jn ERS at 0950 to reach Kollam QLN at 1330 via Kottayam.

Stoppages: At all stations between Kollam and Ernakulam via Kottayam.

It should’ve been a 12-car rake that runs on all days, but yeah, something is better than nothing and it is also better late than never.

Update: It has been upgraded to a 12-car rake.

Now that the morning MEMU crisis has been resolved to an extent, we need to address the crisis that is unfolding during the evening.

A Plan for New Evening MEMU(s) between Ernakulam and Kottayam to Kollam

The overcrowding crisis of the morning has been somewhat alleviated but currently there is another massive controversy about the overcrowding on the Venad Express in the evening going on now. The crowd on Venad in the evenings has reached absolute crush levels and commuters are suffering a lot. And this has resulted in a huge demand for a new commuter MEMU between Ernakulam and Kottayam. There is no commuter train between Ernakulam and Kottayam for three hours between Parasuram Express that leaves at 2:30 and Venad at 5:20! And again for another hour until the 66321 Ernakulam – Kollam MEMU at 1830.

The best way to resolve the problem of overcrowding on the Venad Express is to of course start running new trains on the route. And no, this cannot be solved by just staring a new shadow train for the Venad Express. There needs to be at least two new trains complementing the Venad Express, one ahead of it and one following it with enough gap between them. And this can actually be achieved by better utilising the rakes currently in service.

We will try to create an optimum solution that does not create all the problems our politicians have suggested above. We would still need to cancel the 66327 return MEMU from Ernakulam to Kollam but that one runs empty given the timings it runs in and won’t be missed much unlike the 66315. This rake along with properly extending the 66316 QLN – ERS MEMU could be properly leveraged to run a series of four new MEMU trains between Kottayam and Ernakulam in the afternoons and the evenings. This is how it could be done.

Step 1 – Use the 66321 rake to run a new Ernakulam – Kottayam – Ernakulam MEMU

Cancelling the return trip of the 66327 MEMU is not as a gesture to just run the MEMU rake to anywhere. There exists an actual demand for a later morning train from Ernakulam to Kottayam and an early afternoon train in the return direction as passengers at those timings cram into the few general coaches on day-time long distance trains (Sabari, Kerala, Jayanti expresses) causing serious overcrowding, with unreserved passengers regularly occupying reserved coaches. This MEMU would be able to reduce this crowd to an extent. And of course, there’s ample parking space at KTYM.

• Kottayam MEMU departs Ernakulam at 1100 and arrives Kottayam at 1320. Currently there is no unreserved train from Ernakulam to Kottayam for more than three hours between the “Express” MEMU leaving at 0845 and the Sabari Express at 1200. This one could fill that gap. In fact there used to be a passenger in this timing once, which was removed to create a line block.

• Ernakulam MEMU departs Kottayam at 1420 and arrives Ernakulam Jn at 1600. Same as above, there is no train from Kottayam to Ernakulam in between the Pune Jayanti at 1320 and the Kerala Express that leaves at 1500. Both these are long distance trains and they should ideally not be used by passengers from Kottayam to Ernakulam.

Stoppages: Thrippunithura, Mulanthuruthi, Piravom Road, Vaikom Road, Kaduthuruthy, Ettumanur.

Step 2 – Use that rake and extension of 66316 to run two new MEMUs from ERS in the evening

Next, we explore the possibility of starting two new MEMU trains between Kottayam and Ernakulam in the evening, one before Venad and one after it. This is done by using the MEMU rake and by extending the 66316 QLN-KTYM MEMU to Ernakulam.

Evening MEMU 1 – Ahead of Venad departing Ernakulam Jn at 1630 in the evening.

• This service is run using the “new” MEMU rake that comes to Ernakulam at 0930 in the morning which currently returns as 66327 at 0950. In our new plan 66327 is cancelled and the rake goes to Kottayam and returns to ERS at 1600. It then departs ERS again at 1630, Thrippunithura at 1645, Kottayam at 1745 and Kayamkulam at 1900 to arrive at Kollam at 2010. This one would absorb the early crowd that would’ve waited until 1720 for the Venad. As you can see it will also replace the 66315 Kottayam – Kollam MEMU and take its timings and slot from KTYM onwards. Since this happens it would also mean something has to be done about the 66316 Kollam – Kottayam MEMU. The best way would be to extend it to Ernakulam and use that rake to run another new evening MEMU back to Kollam via Kottayam after Venad.

Evening MEMU 2 – After Venad departing Ernakulam Jn at 1800 in the evening.

• For this one we need to extend the current 66316 MEMU to Ernakulam on its current timings. It departs QLN at 1440 to now leave KTYM at 1630 and arrive ERS at 1745 with stoppages only at Ettumanur, Piravom Road and Thrippunithura on its extended portion. It will then immediately turn around to depart Ernakulam at 1805, half an hour and some time after Venad, to depart Thrippunithura at 1820, Kottayam at 1935 and Kayamkulam at 2030 to arrive at Kollam at 2120, just in time to clear the tracks for the Vande Bharat that arrives at 2135. This one would absorb the late crowd from Infopark region that would otherwise would have hurried to take Venad. We already have seen that the Evening MEMU 1 from ERS has already compensated for the loss of the 66315 evening MEMU from Kottayam to Kollam.

These schedules on a 12-car rake will solve nearly 75% of all commuting woes between Kottayam and Ernakulam for the time being.

NOTE: The monsoon timetable of Konkan railway dictates that the 22113/12201/16311 group should depart Ernakulam at 1745, but this will probably be the final year of the monsoon timetable, so that very valuable slot gets freed up which can be put to much better use.

Improving Commuting Between Kottayam and Ernakulam

Still, all these are only temporary solutions. Ideally we should’ve had cyclically timetabled rapid transit commuter trains between Ernakulam and Kottayam every 10 minutes during rush hour. This is how it is done everywhere in the world. It is just common sense. It is pathetic that we need high-level political interference to get what is essentially a basic human right, to travel in dignity. It is high time we shed the Bombay Jayanti complex and treat trains as just everyday commuting vehicles rather than some big deal that needs gatekeeping.

Commuter trains provide dependable, smooth and predictable connectivity between cities and towns. They are instrumental in making lives of thousands of people a bit easier. Not having to worry about commuting brings untold relief to the lives of common people who get up in the morning and run till evening to make ends meet. It isn’t too much to ask to travel comfortably and in dignity.

As we have seen in this blog multiple times before, what Kerala and India need is a robust intercity, interurban, regional and short-distance commuter train services in a networked manner rather than standalone long-haul weeklies that are introduced to run from nowhere to somewhere just to massage egos or because it is convenient for administrative purposes. Kottayam has six platforms now including one exclusively for MEMUs. Unfortunately four out of these six are empty most of the time. What is the point of building infrastructure if you are not using it, sir? What Southern Railway needs to understand is that its apathy towards Kerala has to end at some point. We have suffered for way too long.

Caboose: Of course, there is a question of where to park the rake of the MEMU in the famously space-constrained premises of Ernakulam Jn railway station. Since where there is a will there’s a way, the answer would be “on the unused line that leads to the Cochin Harbour Terminus”.