Lukewarm start to ticket bookings for special trains

NEW DELHI: Barring a few routes, the booking of tickets for 80 new special trains drew a lukewarm response from passengers on Thursday. These regular trains will start running from Sunday onwards. Railways said bookings will pick up in days to come.
Only about 50% of tickets were sold in all but two trains. The special train from Indore to Howrah was booked 108% and the Shramik from Valsad to Muzaffarpur was even more sought after, registering 179% bookings. Meanwhile, the special from Muzaffarpur to Valsad saw 47% bookings, Gorakhpur to Yashwantpur 32%, Darbhanga to Secunderabad 31% and Bhagalpur-Anand Vihar 26%.
Rail ministry data showed that on the first day, nearly 5.2 lakh bookings were done in these 80 trains, a more than four-fold jump from Wednesday.