Now Reading: Railways rolls out 4 festival special trains on Bihar, UP routes
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Railways rolls out 4 festival special trains on Bihar, UP routes
The Story in Brief
The Railways has announced four festival special trains from Chandigarh to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to manage the Diwali and Chhath Puja travel rush. The special trains will connect Chandigarh with Barauni, Patna and Varanasi, and a Firozpur-Purnia special will also pass through Chandigarh. Bookings have opened on the IRCTC portal and at reservation counters, with services operating during the peak festive period when demand outstrips availability on regular trains.
The Chandigarh-Barauni special will run on Fridays from 27 October, and the Patna special on Thursdays from 29 October. The Chandigarh-Varanasi special will run twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. The Firozpur-Purnia special will depart Chandigarh on Thursdays from 29 October. Major stoppages include Ambala, Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, and Varanasi.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The four trains add capacity on routes where regular services are already oversold, but the Railways has not said how many extra seats this creates or whether it will be enough to clear the waiting lists that stretch into the hundreds during Diwali and Chhath Puja. Passengers on the Chandigarh-Barauni and Firozpur-Purnia corridors now have direct connectivity that was not available on the regular timetable, which could reduce the need for last-mile road travel in Bihar. The absence of any announcement about additional rake deployment or extended services beyond these four trains leaves uncertainty over whether the surge demand will be met during the peak travel period leading up to the festivals.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Methodology and corrections.
