In order to meet the increased travel demands, the Western Railway has extended the running of seven festive special trains.
“For the convenience of passengers & with a view to meet the travel demand, Railways have decided to further extend the running of seven pairs of festival special trains with 80 additional services,” the railways said in a statement.
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Western Railway has extended two pairs of special trains between Ahmedabad-Yasvantpur and Gandhidham-KSR Bengaluru. It has also extended the running of five pairs of trains between Jodhpur-KSR Bengaluru, Ajmer–Mysore, Yasvantpur-Jaipur, KSR Bengaluru –Ajmer & KSR –Jodhpur.
Train number 06501 Ahmedabad to Yasvantpur will depart every Tuesday at 6.40 pm and arrive at Yasvantput at 4.45 am. The train will run till February 2, 2021. Similarly, train number 06502 will leave Yasvantpur every Sunday at 1.30 pm and reach Ahmedabad at 2.20 am. This train will run till January 31, 2021.
The train from Gandhidham to KSR Bengaluru (06505) will leave every Tuesday at 9 am and reach KSR Bengaluru at 11.10 pm on Wednesday. It will also run till February 2, 2021. Its pair from 06506 from KSR Bengaluru to Gandhidham will leave every Saturday at 10.15 pm and reach at 11 am on the third day. it will run till January 30, 2021.
Booking for train numbers 06501 and 06505 will open from December 24 at nominated PRS counters & on IRCTC website.
You can check the whole list here:
Fully reserved trains
The Ministry of Railways earlier this month quashed media reports about the issuance of unreserved tickets.
“There has been no change in policy to run all express trains including festival specials and clone specials as fully reserved train only as yet,” the ministry clarified in an official statement.
“Accordingly till, further advice the existing mail express special trains including festival/holiday specials, clone specials which are running on fully reserved basis (as on date) shall be continued as fully reserved only, by issuing reserved tickets for second class coaches and passenger portion of SLRs also,” the ministry further said.
At present, the railways is operating 736 special trains, 200 services of the Kolkata Metro, over 2,000 Mumbai suburban services, and 20 special clone trains.
Railways had suspended all passenger train services since the beginning of Covid-19 induced lockdown on March 24.