Kannur: The Onam festival is still a good four weeks away. But no reservation tickets are available on trains passing through the Malabar region from the main cities across the country.
Worse, the Railways has announced only one special train to the region to cater to the huge demand in the wake of the festival rush, and commuters will have to dole out double the normal ticket rates to travel in that.
There are thousands of natives of Kannur residing in main cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi. And when they try to book direct trains to reach home to spend Onam with their families, they are surprised to find that only waiting list tickets are available in the sleeper and AC classes even several weeks ahead of the festival.
Railways have announced only a single special train to the Malabar region – the Tambaram-Mangaluru Express that will run on August 22, 29, and September 5.
This has resulted in the ticket rates going up, nearly double that of the normal fare. The North Malabar people are hoping against hope that other zones too will announce special trains to the region soon. The commuters demand that the railways stop “fleecing” passengers visiting home during Onam.
Reservation status
The waiting list position in the Sleeper category for the Yashwanthpur-Kannur Express on August 26 is above 200, and over 100 on the next day. Similarly, there is no ticket for three-tier, two-tier AC coaches.
For travelling from Chennai, only waiting-list tickets are available in Mangaluru Express, Mangaluru Mail, and West Coast Express. Seats are left only in the Chennai Egmore-Mangaluru Express that starts the journey in the night and takes over 17 hours to reach Kannur.
For journey from Delhi, tickets in Mangala Express are only available for booking dates towards September end.
The travel woes of Mumbai Malayalis too are no different. Tickets for travelling from Mumbai to Kannur are only available on the Jabalpur-Coimbatore special train, for which passengers need to dole out the extra fare.
