Railways says regular, suburban passenger trains to remain suspended; 230 special routes will continue to operate

New Delhi: The Railways has stated that all regular passenger train services will remain suspended till further notice, but 230 special trains will continue to be in service. “This is to bring to the notice of all concerned that as decided and informed earlier as well, regular passenger and suburban train services will continue to remain suspended till further notice," a statement from the Railways said. “It may be noted that 230 Special Trains, which are running at present, will continue to operate. Local trains in Mumbai, which are presently being run on limited basis only on the requisition of state government, will also continue to run,” it said. The occupancy of special trains is being monitored on a regular basis and additional special trains may be run based on the requirement, the national carrier said. However, all other regular trains and suburban trains run before the lockdown will remain suspended for the time being, it said. All special trains — 12 pairs running on the Rajdhani routes since 12 May and 100 pairs operating since 1 June — will continue. The limited special suburban services which began recently in Mumbai to ferry essential services personnel identified by the local authorities will also continue to run, officials said. Earlier, the national transporter had suspended all services till 12 August. With the suspension of passenger trains indefinitely, Indian Railways has estimated a loss of around Rs 40,000 crore in its passenger business for this fiscal. The extension of the suspension comes at a time when active COVID-19 cases in India stand at 6,39,929, while 15,83,489 people have recovered, according to the Union Health Ministry. On Tuesday, a single day spike of 53,601 COVID-19 cases pushed India’’s virus caseload to 22,68,675 with the death toll climbing to 45,257.