40 pairs of new special trains to be run from September 12

After a long wait, the Railway department has decided to run 80 special trains (40 pairs) on various routes in the country, from September 12, 2020, and the reservations for the same will start from September 10, 2020. Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar confirmed the same on Saturday and shared more information regarding the plan.

Currently, 230 special express trains are running on various railway lines which includes 30 Rajdhani Expresses. The decision to run these special trains has been taken keeping the upcoming festivals in mind, which includes Dussehra, Diwali, Chhath Puja and more. Observing the demand, the Railway Board decided to increase the number of special trains considering the possibility of a large number of passengers. This move will also help avoid congestion often caused by fewer train availability. Besides this, the decision was considered after a growing demand was observed from passengers and travel associations, who appealed for an increase in the number of special trains.

As per the recent announcement, Kumar said that a list of 80 trains (40 pairs - up an down) will be made available from September 12 and will run mainly on Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna and Delhi. Discussions are underway with the Maharashtra and West Bengal governments in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has also sanctioned inter-state rail travel and bookings for the same have begun.

The Central Railway has planned 16 trains from Mumbai to other locations and 16 incoming trains, which will stop at several stations in Maharashtra for inter-state travel, as per schedule. Passengers are able to book these trains in advance, and so far, 8,501 tickets have been reserved, informed Central Railway. Meanwhile, regular trains services have not been started by the railways.

Officials at the Central Railway had issued a statement regarding the same, which said that since the government has allowed travel from one district to another, the department is starting inter-district passenger transport by rail. Passengers were able to book journey from September 2, 2020.