During the summer season this year, for the convenience of railway travelers and to clear extra rush of passengers, Southern Railway is operating 244 trips of 50 special trains. The major destinations/routes connected are Tambaram – Tirunelveli/Sengottai, Chennai Egmore – Kanniyakumari/Nagercoil/Velankanni, Thiruvananthapuram –Mangaluru, Kochuveli – SMVT Bengaluru, among others. These summer special trains will ensure enhanced connectivity during summer season for the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Further, other zonal Railways have notified 37 summer special trains covering 526 trips to various destinations in Southern Railway. Some of the major destinations connected in Southern Railway are Chennai, Tiruchchirappalli, Coimbatore, Madurai, Velankanni and Mangaluru.
Apart from regular services, Summer (reserved) special trains are being run in Nilgiri Mountain Railway for the benefit of tourists visiting the scenic hill stations of Ooty and Coonoor. Three Round trip NMR joy ride services are also being operated during weekends from April 2023 between Udhagamandalam and Ketti.
Indian Railways is operating 380 summer special Trains with 6369 trips
Indian Railways is running 6369 trips of 380 special trains during the summer season this year to clear extra rush of passengers, Indian Railways is running 1770 morr trips this year as compared to total summer special trains (4599 trips by 348 trains) run in 2022. While an average 13.2 trips per train was run last summer, 16.8 trips per special train are being made in the current year..
In totality, these 380 special trains making 6369 trips have 25794 General Coaches and 55243 Sleeper Coaches. General Coaches have a capacity of 100 passengers whereas Sleeper Coaches have a capacity of 72 passengers in ICF and 78 in LHB.
However, neither the number of trains nor the number of trips run by specific special train(s) is static for the entire season. Planning and running of special trains is a continuous process for which inputs are taken from all the communication channels 24x 7 like media reports, Social media platforms, Railway Integrated helpline number 139, apart from details of waitlist passengers in the PRS system to assess demand of trains on a particular route. Based on this requirement, the number of trains and number of trips are augmented.
A watch on any malpractices – like cornering of seats, over-charging and touting activity etc. is being kept by the team of commercial and RPF Staff.
