Indian Railways to start 80 new special trains from 12 Sept, bookings start today; here are the latest rules and regulations

The Indian Railways will be running 80 more special trains from 12 September. The booking for these trains started from today (10 September). The announcement was made by Ministry of Railways on its official Twitter handle. “Indian Railways to run additional 40 pairs of more special trains w.e.f. 12th September 2020. These will be fully reserved train. Ticket can be booked from 10th September, 2020,” the tweet read.

Indian Railways to run additional 40 pairs of more special trains w.e.f. 12th September 2020.

These will be fully reserved train. Ticket can be booked from 10th September, 2020https://t.co/nurgBZYvJd pic.twitter.com/TtQKJyKAdQ

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) September 6, 2020

As per PIB, these trains will be in addition to the existing 30 special Rajdhani type and 200 Special Mail Express trains that are already operating. The Railways have started running these special trains after regular services were suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. A report by Scroll.in quoted Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav as saying that the Railways will monitor demand for special trains and will consider running clone trains wherever there is a long waiting list. He added that stoppages of the clone trains will be less than the IRCTC special trains. The stoppages will be at major stations for clone trains to cater to the demands of commuters. Yadav also said that trains will also operate whenever a state will demand for it including at the time of examinations. The decision to increase the number of trains has been taken after the Railway Ministry observed a new trend in train occupancy. The trains will help migrant labourers, who went to their home states, to return to their place of work. Passengers can book the tickets of these new special trains through the official website as well as mobile app of IRCTC or from the reservation counter at railway stations. Railways have made it compulsory for the passengers travelling in these trains to cover their mouth and nose with face masks in the station premises as well as during the journey to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Passengers will have to reach the station at least 90 minutes prior to the scheduled departure of the trains and undergo thermals screening. Only those who do not show any COVID-19 symptoms will be allowed to travel in these special trains.