The South Central Railway (SCR) is gradually increasing the number of special trains in the course of the last few months after the lockdown. Yet, save for a few select routes, most of the services are not running full unlike the situation before the pandemic.
Such has been poor patronage from passengers that it had to suspend services of weekly special train towards New Delhi earlier this month. A look at the passenger bookings shows that the special trains towards Amritsar (from Nanded), Danapur, Howrah, Hazrat Nizamuddin and Visakhapatnam have been showing consistent passenger bookings of 100% or more.
For instance, in June the special train towards Danapur had 138% occupancy ratio followed by Howrah at 128% and Visakhapatnam at 103% with Hazrat Nizamuddin and Amritsar having 94% and 92% occupancy rates, respectively. Poor patronage is for trains towards New Delhi and Tirupati from Nizamabad at 33% and 40%, respectively.
The trend continued in July too with Danapur train showing 136%, Howrah 128%, and Amritsar 117% occupancy. Passengers continued to ignore special trains towards New Delhi and Tirupati with occupancy rates falling more to 19% and 46%, respectively, with the special train towards Guntur having 45% occupancy from Secunderabad.
Last month (August) was slightly different with Nanded-Amritsar having 140% occupancy, Mumbai 126%, Danapur 125% and Howrah 123%. The Secunderabad-New Delhi special train occupancy fell further to 16% while Guntur train improved to 70%. And, in the first 10 days of September, the Amritsar special train showed 153%, Mumbai 151%, Howrah 137% and Danapur 132% occupancy. The New Delhi special train occupancy just got to 18% and Guntur train occupancy to 86%.
From just one special Rajdhani express towards Delhi on May 12, nine more trains were introduced by SCR from June 1, two more trains from Sept.12, and the lone clone train towards Danapur from Sept.20. Another 16 trains pass through the zone from Chennai and Bengaluru towards Delhi, Mumbai, Danapur, Guwahati etc., officials said.
"It is clear passengers continue to be circumspect about long-distance travel on AC trains save for those towards Bihar, West Bengal and the like. There are many trains towards Delhi passing through and the air travel which is just two hours is considered more safe," said officials.