Southern Railways on Saturday announced that now female passengers would be allowed to travel in suburban trains in the city on all days of the week without any restrictions starting from December 14. The Southern Railway has been allowing women to travel during non-peak hours. All those engaged in essential services are allowed only during peak hours.

With this official announcement, the timings for using railway services would be more relaxed for women. Along with women, children below the age of 12 years accompanying them would also be allowed to travel.

‘This move would benefit lady passengers as they will be able to travel in the Chennai suburban services throughout the day,’ the release said as reported by The New Indian Express.

With the pandemic bringing restrictions on our day to day movements, Southern Railway has appealed to the passengers to follow COVID-19 protocols including wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and co-ordinating for checking valid documents required during their travel.

Southern Railway had resumed suburban train services in October only for essential staff as offices gradually started to resume.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had written to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal requesting him to grant permission to resume full-fledged operations of suburban trains in Chennai.

As lockdown was gradually lifted, easing restrictions, Southern Railway had announced the resumption of train services from September on selected routes in Tamil Nadu.

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