Central Railway to run 418 special trains for festival season, booking begins
Central Railway will run 418 special trains between October and November to ease festival-season crowding at stations, with bookings opening on September 27 and 28.
With heavy crowds expected at stations during Dussehra, Diwali and Chhath Puja, Central Railway has decided to run 418 special trains for passengers. These trains will run between October and November from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Kolhapur to cities in North India, South India and within Maharashtra. Booking for these trains will begin on September 27 and 28.
According to the timetable issued by Central Railway, the highest number of trips will be on the Gorakhpur route. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-Gorakhpur daily special train (01079/01080) will make 64 trips between October 16 and November 18. Similarly, train numbers 01415 and 01416, the Hadapsar-Gorakhpur daily special, will also make 64 trips.
Several special trains will also run to South India. The CSMT-Chennai weekly AC train (01015/01016) will make 12 trips, while the CSMT-Bengaluru weekly AC train (01013/01014) will make 14 trips. The LTT-Thiruvananthapuram North weekly train (01463/01464) will make 12 trips via the Konkan route, while the LTT-Madgaon weekly train (01179/01180) will make 14 trips.
For those travelling to North India, 24 trips have been fixed for the LTT-Mau bi-weekly train (01123/01124), 24 trips for the LTT-Varanasi bi-weekly train (01051/01052), and 24 trips for the Hadapsar-Ghazipur City bi-weekly train (01431/01432).
Among trains running within Maharashtra, the CSMT-Latur bi-weekly train (01105/01106) will make 26 trips, the CSMT-Nagpur weekly superfast train (02139/02140) will make 12 trips, the CSMT-Kolhapur weekly train (01417/01418) will make 12 trips, and the Pune-Naveen Amravati weekly AC train (01403/01404) will make 12 trips. Bi-weekly and weekly trains on the Nagpur-Hadapsar route will together make 40 trips, while the Kolhapur-Kalaburagi train (01451/01452), running 5 days a week, will complete 64 trips. Booking for all these trains will open on September 27 and 28 at PRS counters, on the website and on the RailOne app.
Six special one-way trains will also run from Mumbai to Nagpur, Amravati, Kolhapur and Solapur. The first train (01119) will depart Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus on Sunday, September 27 at 11:30 am and reach Nagpur at 3 am the next day. The second Nagpur special (01109) will depart at 12:25 am on Monday, September 28 and reach Nagpur at 3:32 pm the same day. Both trains will stop at Dadar, Thane, Kalyan, Nashik Road, Manmad, Jalgaon, Bhusawal, Malkapur, Shegaon, Akola, Murtizapur, Badnera, Dhamangaon and Wardha.
The third train, for Amravati (01107), will depart CSMT on Sunday at 3:30 pm and reach Amravati at 5:20 am the next day, with stops up to Badnera. The fourth train, for Kolhapur (01119), will depart CSMT on Monday at 11:30 am and reach Kolhapur at 10:40 pm. Its stops will be Dadar, Thane, Kalyan, Lonavala, Pune, Jejuri, Lonand, Satara, Karad, Sangli, Miraj and Hatkanangale.
The fifth and sixth trains, for Solapur (01115 and 01117), will depart Lokmanya Tilak Terminus on Sunday and Monday at 9:30 pm and reach Solapur at 6:30 am the next day, with stops at Thane, Panvel, Lonavala, Pune, Daund and Kuduwadi. All trains will have 2 AC third-tier, 12 sleeper, 6 general second-class coaches and 2 guard brake vans. Booking will be available at PRS counters, on the website and on the RailOne app.
