The Indian Railways has cancelled all regular train tickets for journeys till June 30. The Indian Railways has announced that the trains have been cancelled and full refunds will be issued to all passengers who had booked tickets for travel in these special trains. It said that tickets of regular trains, which are being cancelled, were booked during the lockdown period.
It said that the tickets of all regular mail, express, passenger and suburban services of the railways had been suspended from March 25 due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. However, the new order doesn’t imply on the Shramik Special trains and special trains that started running from May 12.
Shramik Special trains are taking migrant labourers from different states to their home states while the special trains are running on 15 routes to ferry stranded Indians across the country.
Earlier this week, the Indian Railways had started taking bookings for 15 special trains in the ongoing lockdown with an aim to gradually resume the train services in India that are a lifeline for transport and communication in the country. IRCTC, which is the ticket booking platform of the Indian Railways, saw a massive response on the very first day with 80,000 passengers purchasing tickets amounting to a total of Rs 16 crore.
Railway Board on Wednesday issued an order introducing the provision of waiting list starting May 22 for journeys not only on its presently operational special trains but also on all its forthcoming services. In the order, Railways also capped the waiting list on these trains — up to 100 for AC 3 tier, 50 for AC 2 tier, 200 for Sleeper Class, 100 for chair cars, and 20 each for First AC and Executive Class.
