Select train services resume from today

PTI

New Delhi

Nearly two months after it suspended operations of passenger trains over the coronavirus crisis, the Railways will resume the services with 15 pair of trains on select routes from Tuesday.

The national transporter issued specific guidelines to passengers travelling on these trains which included asking them to carry their own food, linen, besides making it mandatory to wear face masks.

Passengers will have to download the Arogya Setu app on their phones. The trains will run at full passenger capacity, but railway zones have been instructed to ensure that there are separate entry and exit gates at stations to the extent feasible so that there is no face-to-face movement of passengers. For now, the Railways has issued timetable for trains to be run between May 12 and May 20. They will run as daily, weekly or bi-weekly trains, as per the timetable issued by the Railways. There are no trains on May 16 and May 19.

These trains will run between Delhi and some major cities including Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon.

, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

On May 12, three trains will begin from New Delhi terminating at Dibrugarh, Bengaluru and Bilaspur. One each will begin from Howrah, Rajendra Nagar (Patna), Bengaluru, Mumbai Central and Ahemedabad, all terminating at Delhi.

On May 13, nine trains will be operated – eight of them starting from New Delhi and terminating at Howrah, Rajendra Nagar (Patna), Jammu Tawi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Ranchi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The ninth is a special train from Bhubaneswar to New Delhi.

The Railways will run five trains on May 14 from Dibrugarh, Jammu Tawi, Bilaspur and Ranchi to the national capital and one from New Delhi to Bhubaneswar.

Three trains are scheduled on May 15, two of them from Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai Central and one from New Delhi to Madgaon. On May 17, when the current lockdown is slated to end, a train is scheduled from Madgaon to New Delhi and one from New Delhi to Secunderabad.

The sole run from May 18 is a train from Agartala to New Delhi while two trains are scheduled on May 20 – New Delhi to Agartala and Secunderabad to New Delhi.   

These special trains will have only AC classes, that is, first, second and third AC and the fares will be equivalent to Rajdhani trains.

The Railways has decided to begin select services so that at least the working class can be transported to their destinations. Passengers can book ticket in these trains up to seven days in advance. No RAC and wait list ticket is allowed. Also, on board booking by ticket checking staff will not be permitted. While bookings will be available only on the IRCTC website for the general quota passengers, bare minimum reservation counters will be open on the routes of these special trains for parliamentarians, freedom fighters and some other categories who can book tickets there.