Southern Railway has announced the cancellation of multiple late-night Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) services on the Chennai Beach–Tambaram corridor from 26 September through 4 October to facilitate track and overhead-equipment work at Guindy station. The first round of cuts begins tonight, with the 20:45 Tambaram–Chennai Beach and its return working coming off the timetable on alternate evenings. Although the corridor primarily serves daily commuters, it is also a lifeline for airport staff and BPO workers on staggered shifts as well as business travellers connecting from late evening flights at Chennai International Airport (Tirusulam). Alternative services will run via the fast line, but gaps of up to 90 minutes are expected after 21:00. Southern Railway says it chose the shoulder-night window to minimise weekday peak disruption, yet passenger associations argue that notice was too short for roster planning. Corporate mobility managers with night-shift employees should arrange dedicated shuttles or rideshare credits during the outage. Travellers catching red-eye flights may need to budget extra time or pre-book taxis, as surge pricing is likely near Tirusulam and Egmore. The Guindy upgrade is part of a Rs 970-crore programme to raise line speeds to 110 km/h, reduce terminal dwell times and enable 12-car operations—important gains for Chennai’s over-strained suburban network. Once the block is lifted on 5 October, normal schedules will resume, and the faster crossovers will shave 3–4 minutes off end-to-end timings.
Source: Live Chennai / DT Next
