The recent attack on the passengers in the bus service operated by the Kallada Group seems to be leading to an unintended but welcome consequence. The Railways may introduce a new weekly special train from Kerala to Bengaluru soon

The Kerala Transport Secretary K R Jyothilal met the Railway Board Member (traffic) Gireesh Pillai in New Delhi on Thursday with a demand to introduce more trains to Bengaluru from Kerala.

Kerala was demanding introduction of more regular trains to Bengaluru. But the Railway Board Member has in principle agreed to introduce a weekly special train from Kerala to Bengaluru, Joyothilal said later.

Official sources said the train was likely to operate soon,  either immediately after the polls or before the completion of the polls. They may not be able to make a formal announcement about this now as the poll process is on, according to official sources. But instructions have gone down to the Southern Railway officials from the Railway Board to work out the feasibility of introduction of a new weekly special train most probably on  Sundays, the sources said.

Shortage of train services is cited as the main reason for dependence of the people on the private line buses despite the shoddy treatment of the passengers and the high fare they are charging.

Currently five daily trains including a daytime intercity express are operating between Kerala and Bengaluru. Additionally, couple of weekly and biweekly trains are also operating in this sector. However, these are far from satisfactory and are unable to meet the passenger demand on this route. The highest demand for tickets was from Bengaluru to Kerala on Fridays and in the reverse direction on Sundays.

The demand from Kerala was to convert the biweekly and weekly trains to Bengaluru into regular daily trains. The president of the Thrissur Railway Passnger Association Krishnakumar pointed out that introduction of a new train will take out at least 30 to 40 buses from the road.