Nearly two months after all regular passenger services were suspended by the Railways over the coronavirus crisis, 15 pair of special trains will be operated on select routes starting Tuesday.
Only asymptomatic passengers with confirmed e-tickets will be allowed in these trains and they will have to report at the station at least 90 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure.
During the lockdown period, the Railways has operated freight trains and parcel services to move essential commodities across the country. And from May 1, it also started migrant special trains called Shramik Specials to ferry stranded migrants to their hometowns.
The journey on these 15 pair of special trains will, however, be profoundly different from what it used to be before the coronavirus lockdown began.
While wearing masks has been made mandatory, passengers will also have to download the Aarogya Setu app on their phone. They will be compulsorily screened at the station and have been encouraged to carry their own blankets, water and food for the travel.
The trains will run at full capacity, but railway zones have been instructed to ensure that there are separate entry and exit gates at stations to the extent feasible so that there is no face-to-face movement of passengers.
The zones will be guided by standard social distancing guidelines on stations and trains and observe the safety, security and hygiene protocols.
For now, the Railways has issued time table for trains to be run between May 12 and May 20. They will run as daily, weekly or bi-weekly trains, as per the time table issued by the Railways. There are no trains on May 16 and May 19.
These trains will run between New Delhi and all major cities across the country: Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
On May 12, three trains will begin from New Delhi terminating at Dibrugarh, Bengaluru and Bilaspur. One each will begin from Howrah, Rajendra Nagar (Patna), Bengaluru, Mumbai Central and Ahmedabad, all terminating at Delhi.
On May 13, nine trains will be operated—eight of them starting from New Delhi and terminating at Howrah, Rajendra Nagar (Patna), Jammu Tawi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Ranchi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The ninth is a special train from Bhubaneswar to New Delhi.
The railways will run five trains on May 14 from Dibrugarh, Jammu Tawi, Bilaspur and Ranchi to the national capital and one from New Delhi to Bhubaneswar.
Three trains are scheduled on May 15, two of them from Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai Central and one from New Delhi to Madgaon.
On May 17, when the current lockdown is slated to end, a train is scheduled from Madgaon to New Delhi and one from New Delhi to Secunderabad.
The sole run from May 18 is a train from Agartala to New Delhi while two trains are scheduled on May 20—New Delhi to Agartala and Secunderabad to New Delhi.
These special trains will have only AC classes i.e. first, second and third AC and the fares will be equivalent to Rajdhani trains.
The Railways has decided to begin select services so that at least the working class can be transported to their destinations.
Passengers can book a ticket in these trains up to seven days in advance. No RAC and waitlist ticket is allowed. Also, onboard booking by ticket checking staff will not be permitted.
On arrival at their destination, the passengers will have to adhere to the health protocols prescribed by the destination state, the Railways said.
Pre-packed snacks and biscuits will be available with the onboard catering staff, they will be sold to passengers who need them, just like the airlines do.
Online cancellation shall be permitted up to 24 hours before scheduled departure of train with a cancellation charge of 50 per cent of fare. Following is the time-table of the trains (departure timings):
May 12
Howrah - New Delhi - 5:05 pm Rajendra Nagar (Patna) - New Delhi- 7:20 pm New Delhi - Dibrugarh - 4:45 pm Bengaluru - New Delhi - 8:30 pm New Delhi - Bengaluru-9:15 pm New Delhi - Bilaspur- 4:00 pm Mumbai Central - New Delhi- 5:30 pm Ahmedabad - New Delhi- 6:20 pm
May 13
New Delhi - Howrah - 4:55 pm New Delhi - Rajendra Nagar (Patna) - 5:15 pm New Delhi - Jammu Tawi - 9:10 pm New Delhi - Thiruvananthapuram - 11:25 am New Delhi - Chennai - 4 pm New Delhi - Ranchi - 3:30 pm New Delhi - Mumbai Central - 4:55 pm New Delhi - Ahmedabad - 8:25 pm Bhubaneswar - New Delhi - 10:00 am
May 14
Dibrugarh - New Delhi -9:10 pm Jammu Tawi - New Delhi - 8:10 pm Bilaspur - New Delhi - 2:40 pm Ranchi - New Delhi - 5:40 pm New Delhi - Bhubaneswar - 5:05 pm
May 15
Thiruvananthapuram - New Delhi - 7:45 pm Chennai Central - New Delhi - 6:35 am New Delhi - Madgaon - 11:25 am
May 17
Madgaon - New Delhi - 10:30 am New Delhi - Secunderabad - 4pm
May 18
Agartala - New Delhi - 7 pm May 20 New Delhi - Agartala - 7:50 pm Secunderabad - New Delhi - 1:15 pm.