IRCTC Special Trains of Indian Railways: Will run in addition to 230 in operation. (Figurative)
New Delhi:
Eighty new special trains will be operational from today, whose reservations began on Thursday. These trains will be added to the 230 that are already in operation, said the president of the Board of Railways, VK Yadav.
The president of the Board of Railways, in a press conference, said: “Eighty new special trains or 40 pairs of trains will begin to operate as of September 12. These will be added to the 230 trains that are already in operation.”
Yadav, who was recently appointed the first CEO of the Board of Railways, said that the railways will monitor all trains that are currently in operation to determine which trains have a long waiting list.
“Wherever there is demand for a particular train, wherever the waiting list is long, we will operate a clone train before the actual train, so that passengers can travel,” he said.
The key factor in deciding the 80 new trains was the fact that there were many stations from which migrant workers returned to their workplace, Yadav said.
“Many of these trains run in the opposite direction to Shramik special trains. So (people) are leaving their homes and heading to their place of work.
“We are monitoring the occupancy of trains and will operate more trains according to demand. Among the 230 trains, the occupancy of 12 is very less. We are operating them, but we will reduce the number of coaches,” he said, adding that the average occupancy in the 230 trains is 80 to 85 percent.
Yadav said the Railways are coordinating with state governments as they decide on the introduction of new trains.
To a question about conducting exam trains, Yadav said: “We will run trains whenever there is a request from state governments for exams and other similar purposes.”
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