Indian Railways: 80 new trains from September 12, tickets available from today

These new trains are being introduced keeping in mind the migrant workers who are now travelling back to their workplaces as unlocking has entered the fourth phase in September.

The Indian Railways will run 80 (40 pairs) new trains starting from September 12, tickets of which went live on Thursday at the Indian Railways website. These trains will be in addition to the 230 special trains already in operation — introduced at various stages of lockdown and unlocking in the last six months. The tickets are also available from station counters.

Passengers stand in a queue to buy tickets from a railway station reservation centre in Guwahati, onThursda. (Photo: PTI)

All regular passenger trains were suspended on March 25 owing to the nationwide lockdown. From May, the railways resumed operations in a staggered manner — first it ran Shramik Special trains to ferry migrants workers, then it introduced special trains, which are not regular passenger trains tailor-made according to demand. These new 80 trains, which will connect Delhi-Indore, Yesvantpur-Gorakhpur, Puri-Ahmedabad, Delhi- Bengaluru among other routes, will also be special trains.

Here’s all you need to know about the 80 new trains

1. Several trains connecting small cities to Delhi are being introduced in this phase. Varanasi-New Delhi vande Bharat Express will run from September 12. Here is the list of all 80 trains:

3. To book tickets, log on to www.irctc.co.in. Or, download the IRCTC app

4. After logging in, you can look for the availability of these special trains and accordingly book tickets through e-payment. You will receive an SMS.

5. The stoppages of these trains will be regulated after consulting with the state governments concerned.

6. At present, the railways is running 30 Rajdhani-type special trains, which started from May 12. From June 1, the railways has been running 200 special Mail Express trains.

7. As several national-level examinations are going on, the railways is planning to run more special trains as and when the demand rises.

8. If waiting lists are long for any particular trains, the railways will run clone train to accommodate the waitlisted passengers, it has said.

9. The 80 new trains are being introduced keeping in mind the migrant workers who are now travelling back to their workplaces as unlocking has entered the fourth phase in September.

10. Owing to its limited service, the Indian Railways has estimated a loss of around ₹40,000 crore in the current financial year.