Food to blankets & bookings to cancellation: Railways answers FAQs on Covid train travel

The Indian Railways has resumed passenger train operations from May 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains, weeks after these were suspended due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. The Central government on Tuesday shared detailed guidelines for the passengers willing to avail the services. 

These 15 pairs of special trains from New Delhi station will connect 15 cities, they are Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad, and Jammu Tawi. These trains are in addition to Sharamik Special Trains for transporting stranded people to the places of their choice. 

These trains are identical to Rajdhani Express in terms of fare, speed, and route. Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) shall be issued. The booking for reservation on these trains have started from May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/)

Here's all you need to know about the guidelines issued:

Meanwhile, hundreds of passengers from Gujarat and Rajasthan reached New Delhi on Wednesday on the first train to arrive in the national capital since the resumption of railway services, as a large number of them gathered on roads outside the station with no transport available for onward journeys. The train departed from Ahmedabad at 6:30 pm on Tuesday and reached New Delhi at 8 am. Many passengers stood clueless outside the railway station, while some tried to convince local cab drivers to take them home in various states.

602 Shramik Special trains run so far

The railways have operated 602 "Shramik Special" trains since May 1 and ferried home seven lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, officials said on Tuesday. On Monday, a statement issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the railways will now run 100 "Shramik Special" trains on a daily basis to facilitate faster movement of workers.

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Of the 575 trains run till 4 pm Tuesday, 463 have reached their destinations and 112 are in transit. The 463 trains were terminated in various states, including Uttar Pradesh (221), Bihar (117), Madhya Pradesh (38), Odisha (29), Jharkhand (27), Rajasthan (four), Maharashtra (three), Telangana and West Bengal (two each), and Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (one each).

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The trains have ferried migrants to cities such as Tiruchirappalli, Titlagarh, Barauni, Khandwa, Jagannathpur, Khurda Road, Allahabad, Chhapra, Balia, Gaya, Purnia, Varanasi, Darbhanga, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Jaunpur, Hatia, Basti, Katihar, Danapur, Muzaffarpur and Saharsa.

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(With PTI inputs)