Special trains to ease the festive rush
LUCKNOW: In order to manage the festival-time rush around Dussehra and Diwali , railways have introduced a fresh fleet of special trains, starting from October.
Officials with Northern Railways (NR) said that these trains would help minimise the passenger rush during the festival season.
Special trains have been introduced in three categories – Suvidha Express, Express Special and Jansadharan Express.
Suvidha Express has around eight trains that include the Mumbai Central (09013) to Lucknow weekly train. The train will ferry passengers from October 15 to 19, starting on Thursday, while the Lucknow to Mumbai train will shuttle passengers from October 16 to 20, starting from Lucknow on Friday. Officials said that the train would minimise passenger rush on the Mumbai-Lucknow route to quite an extent.
Besides, the category has other trains including Darbhanga to Delhi junction (04407), Anand Vihar terminal to Gorakhpur (05028) and others.
The second category, Express Special, will have the maximum numbers of special trains. Gorakhpur to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (05029) will ply from October 16 to 20, starting on Friday. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra to Gorakhpur (05030) will ply from October 18 to 22, starting on Sunday. Chhapra to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (05115) and its counterpart will ply on Tuesday and Thursday, up to October 17 and 19 respectively.
The train (04941) Lucknow to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra would be a bi-weekly train, starting from Lucknow on Wednesday and Sunday, while its counterpart will leave from Katra on Tuesday and Saturday.
The trains will ply from October 20 to 24 and October 21 to 25 respectively. The category has other special weekly trains from Likmanya Tilak Terminal to Lucknow and reverse.
The Jansadharan category too has around half a dozen special trains towards Delhi, Ambala, Saharsa and Chhapra.
"We are making best possible efforts in order to streamline the rush and also to facilitate the passengers during the upcoming festive season," said Amitab Kumar, divisional commercial manager (DCM) NR Lucknow.