The Southern Railways is set to stop three train services in Kerala due to lack of passengers. The Thiruvananthapuram - Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram - Kozhikode Jan Shatabdi Express and Thiruvananthapuram - Ernakulam Venad Express are the trains that will be stopped from Saturday onwards.
The three trains which have been running for years now and are among the most punctual train services in Kerala were restarted in May 2020. They were allowed to operate during Lockdown 3, in order to facilitate inter-district travel during the pandemic. However, the services recorded very low occupancy. The trains also had very few stops due to the pandemic.
“The Thiruvananthapuram - Kozhikode Jan Shatabadi express has less than 24% occupancy rate, while the Thiruvananthapuram - Kannur Jan Shatabdi express has less than 13%. Even the Venad express has recorded a very low number of passengers,” a Public Relations Officer of the Railways told TNM.
According to reports, the Railway Board is most likely to cancel train services which report less than 25% occupancy.
“The trains were restarted as special trains, and without any instructions on when they would be stopped. We were asked to operate them until the next instruction from the Railway Board. We have only received an advisory so far on cancelling these trains. An official confirmation from the Southern Railways headquarters is pending,” the PRO added.
Kerala has been seeing a steady spike in COVID-19 cases. After it reported its highest ever single-day spike last week on Monday, Kerala reported 1,648 new cases and 12 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday. With this the total active cases in Kerala stand at 21,268 while the death toll stands at 327.
The state, which had gained recognition for its effective control of COVID-19 infections when the pandemic first broke out, has been seeing 1000 plus new cases everyday for weeks together now. Health minister KK Shailaja also confirmed that Kerala will see the infection’s peak in September, adding that the state can expect 10,000 to 20,000 new cases everyday. She also added that there could be more deaths, given the increase in the number of cases.