Nearly 1.5 lakh tickets booked in first 2 hrs for trains running from June 1

The railways said these trains will be “special trains run on the pattern of regular trains”, covering tier 2 cities and also major state capitals like Mumbai and Kolkata.

Almost 1.50 lakh tickets were booked within two hours of opening the bookings for the 100 pairs of passenger trains that the railways will operationalise on June 1, officials said Thursday. On Wednesday, railways issued a list of 100 pairs of trains that it will operate from June 1. The list included popular trains such as Durontos, Sampark Krantis, Jan Shatabdis and Poorva Express.

Migrants who arrived from Gujarat on a Shramik Special seen walking on railway tracks while exiting Danapur Station in Patna, Bihar. (Santosh Kumar /Hindustan Times)

This is the second slew of special passenger services that marked the Railways graded restoration of its trains which were suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“At 12:00 Hours, 73 trains were available in the system for booking. 1,49,025 tickets were booked having 2,90,510 passengers,” said a railway spokesperson. These trains will have both AC and non-AC classes and fully reserved coaches.

The railways said these trains will be “special trains run on the pattern of regular trains”, covering tier 2 cities and also major state capitals like Mumbai and Kolkata.

Officials said from now on, all such special trains will have both these categories to accommodate all classes of passengers. The trains that will run from June 1 include 17 Jan Shatabdi trains and five Duronto Express trains.