Migrant trains from cities ran full in April, demand expected to remain high

Over the last month, as the second wave of the pandemic swelled, over 600 “summer special” trains out of large cities like Mumbai and Delhi ran at nearly 100 per cent capacity as they took migrants back home.

The trend and the corresponding demand projection continues, officials said, as these summer specials out of large cities, especially in Maharashtra, are still running with 100 per cent occupancy.

Data for these 677 special trains—all with reserved category seats—shows that most of them ran at 100 per cent occupancy from cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Surat and Delhi and terminated in Darbhanga, Danapur, Gorakhpur and east Indian areas.

“Several are citing death cases at home while lockdown in many places have made it a necessity for many to take the trains and go,” a senior Railway official told The Indian Express. “The idea is to keep running trains as per demand so that there are always options for those who have to travel,” he said.

Trains from such areas as Mumbai, Udhna, Surat, for Barauni, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Mau and others, ran with around 300 people on the waiting list in Sleeper and Second Seating classes over the past few days.