80 new special passenger trains to be operational from today

Eighty new special passenger trains will be operational from today, i.e. September 12, 2020. These will be fully reserved trains. Booking for these trains had already started from 10th of this month at the Indian Railways Website. The tickets are also available from station counters.

The Railway Ministry said these trains will be in addition to the existing 30 special Rajdhani type trains and 200 Special Mail Express trains, introduced at various stages of lockdown and unlocking in the last six months.

All regular passenger trains were suspended on March 25, 2020, owing to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. From May 2020, the railways resumed operations in a staggered manner. Earlier, Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav had said that the Railway is keeping a close watch over the demand and waiting lists in various areas of the country. He said, more trains will be made operational in due course of time if needed.

The key factor in deciding the 80 new trains was the fact that there were many stations from where the migrant workers are going back to their workplace, Yadav said.