Indian Railways All Regular Trains Update After 12th September

Train services in the country came to a screeching halt as the government planned to curb train travel among panic-stricken citizens, to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The Indian Railways stopped services of almost 13,000 trains that it used to run daily, to prevent people from rushing.

COVID-19 changed the way we travel and in an unprecedented measure, the railways, often called the lifeline of the country, had suspended passenger trains from March 22 midnight due to the pandemic. Restrictions were eased and some trains resumed on May 12, with measures in place to adapt to the post-COVID scenario.

The Railways has decided to run 20 pairs of special trains from September 2 to 15 for the convenience of those appearing for JEE, NEET, and NDA exams in Bihar. The 80 new trains announced today will be operational from 12 September, reservations for which will begin from September 10. This will be in addition to the earlier 230 trains which resumed earlier.

Guidelines were issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs for all the passengers to get screened compulsorily and only asymptomatic passengers shall be allowed to enter/board trains.

On a group ticket if one passenger was found unfit to travel and all other passengers on the same PNR also didn’t not want to travel, in that case full refund was granted for all passengers.

In case of a group ticket if one passenger was found unfit to travel but the other passengers on the same PNR wanted to travel, full refund of fare was granted to the passenger who was not allowed to travel.

If during the screening, a passenger was found with a very high temperature/symptoms of COVID-19 etc. he was not allowed to travel despite having confirmed tickets.

Indian Railways took many important steps to provide safety to its travellers to prevent the spread of Coronavirus infection, the Indian Railways developed a special ‘post-COVID coach’ for passengers. Developed in Kapurthala rail coach factory, these specially designed coaches are loaded with multiple features like hands-free amenities, copper-coated handrails and latches, plasma air purification and titanium di-oxide coating for COVID free journey.

The post-COVID coach has hands-free amenities like foot operated water tap & soap dispenser, foot operated lavatory door (outside), foot operated flush valve, foot operated latches in lavatory door, outside wash basin with foot operated water tap and soap dispenser and forearm operated handle on compartment door.

In view of the spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, Indian Railways cancelled all regular mail, express, passenger and suburban services till August 12. All tickets booked for regular time-tabled trains for journey between July 1 and August 12 were cancelled.

Indian Railways’ regular services remain suspended! Indian Railways has said that all regular passenger and suburban trains will remain suspended till further notice. However, the 230 COVID-19 special trains that the national transporter is currently running, will continue as per the time-table.

Indian Railways assures that passengers will receive a 100% refund which will be automatically credited to their original source of payment. Passengers don’t need to initiate cancellation on the ixigo app, as the tickets stand automatically cancelled.

For a seamless and fasttrain ticket booking, travellers can use ixigo trains app and can avail amazing offers.

In May 2020, the Indian Railways had cancelled all passenger train tickets booked till June 30. The move was further extended for the period between July 1 and August 12, via an order issued by the Railway Board.

Recently, Piyush Goyal chaired Railway Ministry issued a statement saying that as decided and informed earlier on as well, the regular passenger train services, as well as the suburban train services, will continue to remain suspended on the Indian Railways network till further notice. Indian Railways has for the first time in its history had to suspend normal passenger train services for such a long period. The important step has been taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

According to the Railway Ministry, the 230 COVID-19 special trains, which are running on the Indian Railways network at present, will continue to operate. Other than these special trains, local train services in Mumbai, which at present are being operated on a limited basis only on the requisition of the state government of Maharashtra, will also continue to run. The Railway Ministry has also said that the occupancy of these IRCTC special train services is being monitored by the national transporter on a regular basis. Also, based on the requirement, additional special trains may be operated as well.

The regular passenger and other local trains that were running before the lockdown will continue to remain cancelled till further notice. Whereas occupancy in special trains is being monitored on a regular basis and additional trains may be run if the need arises.

However, for the time being, all other regular train services and suburban trains that were operated before the lockdown will remain suspended till further notice, the Railway Ministry added.

The operations of 200 passenger services were started by Indian Railways from 1 June 2020 and booking of all these trains had commenced from 21 May 2020. While the 30 special AC train services are being operated since 12 May 2020. Meanwhile, in order to ensure the essential supplies in various regions across the country, movement of goods, as well as Parcel train services, will continue to run.