News Analysis India

Tag: special train

  • Return to complete normalcy? Railway Board issues order to drop ‘special train’ tag, revert to pre-Covid fares

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Under pressure from passengers over hike in fares, the Railways on Friday issued an order to discontinue the ‘special’ tag for mail and express trains and revert to pre-pandemic ticket prices with immediate effect.

    Since the coronavirus-triggered lockdown was eased, the Railways has been running only special trains.

    It started with long-distance trains and now, even short-distance passenger services are being run as special trains with “slightly higher fares” to “discourage people from avoidable travels”.

    In a letter to the zonal railways on Friday, the Railway Board said trains will now be operated with their regular numbers and fares will revert to normal pre-Covid prices.

    Ticket prices of special trains and holiday special trains are marginally higher.

    “In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, all regular mail/express trains were being operated as MSPC (mail/express special) and HSP (holiday special). It has now been decided that the MSPC and HSP train services, included in the Working Time Table, 2021, shall be operated with regular numbers and with fares as applicable for the concerned classes of travel and type of train, as per the extant guidelines.”

    “This issues with the concurrence of Passenger Marketing Directorate of Railway Board,” the order dated November 12 said.

    In another order, the Railway Board clarified that the second class of such trains shall continue to run as reserved except for any relaxation permitted in a special case.

    It also said that for tickets booked in advance, no difference of fare either is to be collected by Railways or any refund shall be permitted.

    Neither order however specifies when the zonal railways are required to revert to their pre-Covid regular services.

    “The zonal railways have been instructed. While the order is with immediate effect, the process will take a day or two,” a senior official said.

    “With this, more than 1,700 trains will be restored in the next few days. The first digit will now not be zero as was in the case of special trains,” another official said.

    Officials, however, said curbs introduced because of Covid, such as temporary restrictions on concessions, bedrolls and meal services, would remain in effect.

    With the operation of special trains and no concessions, the Railways’ revenue has seen substantial growth.

    The transporter registered an increase of 113 per cent in earnings from the passenger segment during the second quarter of 2021-2022 as compared to the first.

  • Special train for three rounds between Santragachi-Pune and Hatia

    There is relief news for the passengers going from Santragachi to Pune and Hatia. Railway administration is providing weekly superfast special facility from Santragachi for three trips between Pune and Hatia. In which Santragachi to Pune will run every Thursday on 10th, 17th and 24th June, 2021. This special train will leave Santragachi at 23.25 hrs and will reach Pune at 09.05 hrs next day via Bilaspur at 10.30 hrs, Raipur at 12.45 hrs, Durg at 13.40 hrs, Gondia at 15.58 hrs and Nagpur at 17.50 hrs.

    Similarly, it will run from Pune to Santragachi every Saturday on 12th, 19th and 26th June. This train will leave Pune at 17.40 hrs and reach Nagpur at 09.15 hrs, Gondia at 11.30 hrs, Durg at 13.40 hrs, Raipur at 14.15 hrs, Bilaspur at 16.00 hrs, Jharsuguda at 19.35 hrs and reach Santragachi at 05.15 hrs the next day.

    On the other hand, Hatia Pune Special train will run from Hatia to Pune on every Wednesday, 09, 16, 23 June.Yognagri Rishikesh – Puri Special train leaving Yognagri Rishikesh on 08th June will be delayed by 03 hours 30 minutes from Yoganagri Rishikesh. Similarly, on June 9, Durg-Rajendra special train running from Durg will be delayed by 03 hours 25 minutes from Durg.

  • Special train from Mumbai reaches Ranchi with only 30 passengers

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: Much to the disappointment of district and Railway officials, the very first special train, arranged to meet the rush of migrants queuing up at railway stations to reach their homes to avoid chaos like the previous lockdown in 2020, reached Ranchi station with only 30 passengers.

    Interestingly, according to official records, at least 184 passengers were supposed to arrive here, but 154 disappeared in between Mumbai and Ranchi Stations.

    Sources in the railways told that the train was stopped at Nimiyaghat Station near Gomoh Junction for around 40 minutes where those passengers might have got down from the train to avoid testing for COVID-19. Officials, however, could not explain where those 154 passengers disappeared even though they had booked their tickets for Ranchi.

    The officials, however, said that those passengers might have got down on the stations even before reaching Ranchi Station to reach their respective destinations on time.

    “The train reached here at 1:50 pm. The train which was to cover only one trip from Mumbai-Ranchi-Mumbai had 30 passengers on it. All those who reached here were screened properly and were allowed to go home only after giving samples,” said Ranchi Division CPRO Neeraj Kumar. All arrangement was done here for testing of every passenger reaching here, he added.

    Meanwhile, fearing the chances of lockdown which might be put in place with COVID-19 cases going out of control in Maharashtra, most of the migrant workers are opting to return back to their native places to avoid chaos like the previous lockdown in 2020.

    “If I had stayed there for some time more, I might have landed in trouble. Already, most of the business activities have been closed down; therefore, it is impossible to manage the living expenses in a city like Mumbai,” said a migrant Afroz, who works in Mumbai as a daily wage labourer. He did not wanted to facesimilar situation what he had to face last year due to sudden announcement of lockdown, he added.

    Afroz told that that the train was fully packed when it departed from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai, but he could also not explain where and why they got down even before reaching Ranchi Station.

  • In the Corona era, double fare from passengers under the guise of special train, know what the High Court said

    Public interest litigation was filed in the High Court on the issue of running a passenger train and normalizing the fare of special trains. The petition alleges two-fold fare for passengers in the name of Corona. During the hearing, the Railways has accepted in the High Court that the special train Chhattisgarh Express is being charged for five hundred kilometers instead of 330.

    Hence the AC Three fare from Nagpur to Raipur is Rs 999. Whereas the fare from Nagpur to Raipur was earlier five hundred rupees. Petitioner Sudeep Srivastava filed a public interest litigation by the Railways to charge more and start passenger trains.

    In this, petitioner Sudeep Srivastava, along with the fare in Rajdhani Express, is also being charged for the food from passengers, but food is not being given. This issue was also placed before the court during the debate. But the Railways did not respond to this. Railways did not even respond to how long the passenger train would be run for the common man. The next hearing of the case will be on 15 February.