Clone trains on the anvil to counter festive rush

LUCKNOW: If all goes well, finding trains to board during the festive season would no longer be an uphill task.

Railways is planning to introduce ‘clones’ of a few of its popular trains to ease the chaos on the platforms at the time of prominent festivals.

True to their name, the clone trains would be exact replicas of the original trains — be it in terms of name, alignment of bogies, sched- ule as well as the stoppages. Railway officials believe the clone trains would minimise the confusion arising in the existing system of special trains.

“Boarding a clone train would be much more convenient as compared to the special train,” said an officer with the North Eastern Railways (NER).

Pointing out drawbacks of special trains, another officer said, “Since the passengers are not familiar with the names of the special trains, it becomes difficult for them to find one according to their convenience. They face difficulty in knowing whether the train would halt at a certain station or not.”

On the contrary, in case of clone trains regular pas- sengers would be well aware of the trains, their stoppages and also the alignment of the bogies, said the officials.

“For example if a passenger frequently travels by Pushpak Express, he might be aware of its stoppages and information like whether the train has 2nd AC or 3rd AC coaches or not. But, if there is any new train with a new name, he might land up in the state of confusion,” one of the officers explained.

Sources with the Railways said the clone trains would be launched for long-distance trains like Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Pushpak Express, Gareeb Rath, Chandigarh Express and others.

Anil Saxena, additional director general, public relations, Railways, said, “The concept of clone trains to ease the festive rush was raised last year. Efforts are underway in the direction and we can expect these trains to roll out in the coming years.”