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The Railways has decided to run 9,000 special trains between April and July to accommodate the peak traffic in summer. The trains are a mix of high- and lower-priced ones.
Summers are busy days for the Railways because families tend to travel during the long vacation. Also, for migrant farm labourers and factory workers, summer is the time to take a break and head home.
Year after year, the increased traffic creates long waiting lists and crowded trains and stations, leaving the Railways to face flak from a large number of disappointed passengers.
“This year, we have notified much in advance to run 9,000 (additional) train trips. In fact, originally, we planned to run 10,000 trips. The bookings for these trains started four months in advance (ahead of April). We have cut down on last-minute running of trains,” Mohammad Jamshed, Member-Traffic, Railway Board, told BusinessLine . He admitted that despite the special trains, there is still a long waiting queue.
While some passengers have opted for flights, cars and buses, there are crores of people — equivalent to the population of countries — who would rather take a train. The reasons are plenty: low cost, end-to-end connectivity, space to stretch legs and sleep, freedom to carry or buy cheap food, toilets (with a hope that it will be clean), no luggage limits, saving on hotel stay, etc. In fact, several people don’t realise there are ways to find cheaper flight tickets than AC trains on some routes.
“There is huge exodus of migrants leaving cities for the holidays,” said Jamshed. “About 55-60 per cent of trains from Mumbai, South India and Punjab carry labourers from UP, Bihar and West Bengal back to their homes. From Punjab, it is the agricultural labour between crop seasons because the climate is hot. Also, they head back to Punjab during the rains. Then, there are migrant workers from Maharashtra and Gujarat who visit home for a month.”
In FY18, the Railways had an extra 6.5 crore passengers taking trains — in the reserved as well as suburban segments. “This is despite metros (rail) coming up, good roads, expressways and commercial vehicle sales. We ran about 36,000 special trains during the summer rush and other holiday seasons last year,” he added.
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