UDHAGAMANDALAM: The Salem division of the Southern Railway on Friday reintroduced chartered services in the
Nilgiri Mountain Railway
(
NMR
), and a
honeymooning couple
from the
UK
-- Graham William Lynn and Sylvia Plasic – were the first travellers. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway in
Tamil Nadu is a UNESCO heritage site.
The couple exclusively hired the train through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The couple spent Rs 2.5 lakh for the one-way special charter train trip from Mettupalayam to Ooty (48km).
In the three-coach train with 143 seating capacity, they travelled alone experiencing the serenity of the blue mountains. The train chugged up the hill through 13 tunnels and forests. The journey lasted five and half hours.
The special charter train departed from Mettupalayam station around 9.10am and reached Ooty at 2.20pm.
While a coal-fired loco pulled the train from Mettupalayam to Coonoor, a diesel-fired loco was used from Coonoor to Ooty.
The couple was greeted at the Coonoor railway station as well as at Ooty railway station.
According to railway officials, the chartered train service on the NMR tracks is a promotional activity to boost the image of the mountain service across the globe.
The railways had run chartered services in the NMR from 1997 to 2000. Later, special chartered night services were run, from 2002 to 2004. The chartered service has been reintroduced now after the railways revamped some locomotives and coaches.
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