Pilgrims at Vailankanni rue high fares, demand special trains

Ruing the "unreasonably high" fares of the only premium train for their return journey, pilgrims flocking at Vailankanni from Maharashtra and Goa are demanding special trains for the 10-day annual festival to Shrine Baslica.
About 80,000 pilgrims from Maharashtra and Goa visit the holy shrine during the festival, which commenced on August 29, Charlie Rosario, coordinator of Vailankanni Pilgrims Association, claimed.
"We had long been appealing to Southern Railway to run special trains to Mumbai from Vailankanni on September 8 and 9 to facilitate return journey. But the announcement of just one train on September 9 and that too a premium train, in which the fares are equivalent to that of air travel, is distressing," Roasario said.

He said the premium service for the return journey has made travel unaffordable for a large number of pilgrims. As per today's dynamic fares, a sleeper class ticket costs over Rs 2,000 while a three Tier AC ticket is around Rs 5,000, he claimed.
Samuel Manuel from Mumbai said he has been attending the annual festival at Velankanni since 2006 with his family. Though they had experienced difficulties in their return journey for want of adequate train services, the ticket fare was not very high.
"But this year Southern Railway has arranged train service for just one day, that too with premium fare. It is quite unreasonable and common people cannot afford to spend so much. We request that ordinary train services be provided for the return journey for two days on Sept 8 and 9 at normal rates," he said.

Crasto from Goa echoed the same feelings, saying he had been undertaking the annual pilgrimage since 2009 and had found the rail fares reasonable till now.
"I hoped the Railways would announce a couple of trains to clear the huge rush of devotees. But they have announced only one train and the ticket rate too is very high. They should bring down the prices and operate more trains on these two days," he said.