IRCTC special trains: Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways is seeing high demand for train services, with an average of 97% booking for the 15 pairs of IRCTC special train services that are being run from May 12. “We have seen around 97% booking for the special trains that we have been running since May 12,” Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said today. “There is need to gradually resume passenger train services and to that effect we have announced 200 train services from June 1 for which tickets can now be booked at railway ticket counters as well,” Yadav said addressing a press conference.
Yadav said that more train services will be introduced based on demand. “Passenger train operations are gradually resuming. The 200 trains were announced based on the demand pattern, We are continuously monitoring the ticket booking, over 17 lakh passengers have booked tickets, some trains have seen 90-100% booking. We will introduce more trains based on demand on routes,” Yadav said.
Indian Railways has partially resumed passenger train services from May 12. The 200 IRCTC special trains that will run from June 1 will be separate from the 30 AC train services that are already running from May 12.
Talking about the Shramik special trains that Indian Railways is running to transport stranded migrant labourers, Yadav said that several such services are planned in the coming days. The Railway Board Chairman expects that in the next 10 days as many as 2,600 Shramik special trains will run ferrying around 36 lakh passengers. Yadav said that till day over 2,000 Shramik special trains have run carrying over 35 lakh passengers to their destination states. “We are bearing 85% of the cost of running the Shramik special trains,” he said.
Asked about freight trains, Yadav said that the national transporter’s freight operations are at 70% compared to the same period last year.
