Indian Railways on Tuesday announced that all regular train services will continue to remain suspended until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to reports. However, the 230 special trains which have been functional since June 2020 will continue to provided services.
The Indian Railways had earlier announced that the regular train services will remain suspended until August 12 and now this date has been extended further.
Reports say that Indian Railways will continue to monitor occupancy rate of these special trains and will provide additional services based on the requirement. Mumbai suburban train services will also continue to provided limited services as requested by the state government; however, other suburban train services will remain suspended.
Indian Railways had suspended regular train services on March 25 in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 12, Railways started running 15 pairs of special Rajdhani trains connecting New Delhi to various cities.
More special trains were introduced from June 1 with 100 pairs of special trains connecting various destinations across India. Initially, tickets for these trains could only be booked via IRCTC app or website; however, a few ticket counters were opened later.
Indian Railways ferried migrant workers via Shramik Special trains in the month of May and June. The Railways board informed in a press conference earlier that the last Shramik Special train ran on July 9. The board said that if there is more demand for such trains, it will run these services again.
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