Rail commuters on the main line section have made an appeal to the Southern Railway to operate the Tiruchi-Tambaram Intercity Express on all days of the week.Hitherto this 16 coach chair car express service (excluding the engine and SLR) having a composition of two air-conditioned reservation class sitting coaches, 6 second class sitting reservation coaches and 8 unreserved second class sitting coaches, is being operated on five days, except on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, in a week.Commuter patronage to this service, as per the data provided by the Southern Railway to a query raised under the Right to Information Act, hovers around 1000 to 1300 daily. The service provides vital link to the major towns such as Thanjavur, Papanasam, Kumbakonam, Mayiladuthurai, Sirkazhi, Chidambaram and Thiruppathiripuliyur (Cuddalore) on the main line section during the morning hours from Tiruchi and from these stations to Tiruchi in evening/night hours.Patronage to the service could increase further if main line commuters were assured that they could rely on this service for the travel on all through the week, claimed Revanth of Thanjavur, one among the many passengers having business interests in the towns located on the main line section.Earlier Mr.Revanth used to depend on the Cholan Express till its scheduled departure timing was gradually pushed to around noon citing ‘line block’ and other administrative reasons in the recent past to reach his destinations along the main line. He claimed that he would prefer road transport to get back to Thanjavur.Now with an assured service train intercity service available to get back to Thanjavur, he said, conversion of Tiruchi-Tambaram Intercity Express as daily service would be of immense help to business commuters and as well as to others commuting between destinations from and to Tiruchi and Thiruppathiripuliyur (Cuddalore).Sethuraman of Thanjavur, a social activist, said that the Cholan Express since its relaunch in 2010 remains as a ‘dependable’ service for long distance commuters heading to Tambaram or Chennai Egmore from Thanjavur and Kumbakonam and vice versa given the composition of the coaches. It has four unreserved second class sitting coaches, a travel class affordable to local commuters.The statistics provided by the Southern Railway indicate that despite the change in departure timings at both ends the Cholan Express in the recent past the service attracts sizeable commuter patronage, Mr.Sethuraman said.The advance and current ticket bookings, as per the Southern Railway statistics, hover around 40% of total number travellers used this service to commute between Chennai Egmore and Kumbakonam/Thanjavur and vice versa, he said. Published - June 09, 2026 05:58 pm IST