Only vaccinated passengers allowed on suburban trains in Chennai region, says Southern Railway

From Monday, only passengers who are double vaccinated and produce the certificate will be able to board the suburban trains run by the Southern Railway in the Chennai region. The new restriction is to supplement the efforts taken by the Tamil Nadu government in controlling the spread of Covid-19.

The Southern Railway also said it will operate trains with 50 per cent of the seating capacity from January 10 to January 31 in the Chennai region, including the extended areas of the city’s suburbs.

“Only passengers in possession of Certificate for Covid Vaccination (both doses ) will be permitted to travel in suburban trains. The passengers will need to produce the second dose vaccination certificate/final certificate for Covid-19 Vaccination for the issue of journey/season tickets at the counters along with their valid ID proofs,” the Southern Railway said.

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It also said those passengers who already possess season tickets should produce the vaccination certificate on demand by the ticket checking staff while announcing that UTS on Mobile application service will not be available.

The Southern Railway also asked passengers to adhere to all Covid appropriate behaviour such as social distancing, wearing of masks while in the station and onboard the train. “Railway administration shall impose a penalty of Rs.500 wherever passengers are found not to be wearing the mask,” it added.

As per the new restrictions, the 12-digit number of Covid vaccination certificates will be fed in the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) before the issue of season tickets. The last 4 digits of the covid vaccination certificate number will be printed on the season tickets.

“During the subsequent renewals of season tickets, the last 4 digits of the vaccination certificate will be printed automatically upon feeding the UTS no. of the previous season ticket, akin to all other pre-fed details like Aadhar, season ID card, etc,” the Southern Railway said.

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