Title - Northern Railway to bring out a timetable for special trains

In a major relief to rail passengers, the Northern Railway will be drafting a separate timetable listing only the special trains introduced to cater to the festival rush. The decision has been taken in the wake of some glitches and operational delay in the running of special trains, Railways officials said.

“A separate timetable will be maintained for special trains. This will minimise the inconvenience faced by passengers. Since special trains are run on a need-basis and their numbers cannot be fixed, we were not able to prepare a concrete schedule so far,” a senior Northern Railway official said.

According to statistics available with the Northern Railway, 80 pairs of special trains were introduced this season, which made around 1,800 trips. Of this, 35 special Patna-bound trains were run for Chhath Puja over a span of four days.

Around 16 to 22 additional coaches were added to special trains. On regular trains, on an average, about 24 additional coaches are being attached.

Officials said the timetable will also include the special train arrangement to be run for Holi next year.

The train schedule for next year will also have provisions for including schedules of special trains.

“The annual train schedule, which is made in June, will also take into consideration the special train arrangements made to tackle the festival rush. Usually, the planning of festival trains is done four to five months in advance. If an additional special train is sanctioned at the last moment, these will be included in the special train timetable,” the official said.