Central Railway announced on Friday that it will operate six special trains on key long-distance routes on 6 and 7 December to manage the extra rush of passengers caused by widespread flight cancellations across the country.
CR chief public relations officer Swapnil Nila said the special services will run on Pune-SMVT Bengaluru (6 December), Pune-New Delhi (7 December), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Madgaon (7 December), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-New Delhi (6 December), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Lucknow (6 December) and Nagpur-CSMT (6 December).
At the national level, Indian Railways has announced the augmentation of 37 trains with 116 additional coaches, covering 114 augmented trips across the network.
A PIB release stated the decision was taken to ensure smooth travel and provide adequate accommodation to stranded and waiting passengers following a sudden surge in rail bookings due to air travel disruptions.
Western Railway will also temporarily add extra coaches to four long-distance trains.
An additional AC 3-tier coach will be attached to the New Delhi-Lucknow express (Train No. 12429) on 6 December and the Lucknow-New Delhi express (Train No. 12430) on 7 December. Five AC 2-tier coaches will be added to the Mumbai Central-New Delhi express (Train No. 12951) and the Sabarmati BG-New Delhi express (Train No. 12957) from 6-10 December.
IndiGo, which operates about two-thirds of the country’s domestic traffic with around 2,300 daily flights, cancelled over 1,000 flights on Friday.
The cancellations caused chaos at major airports across India, with passengers scrambling for updates, searching for baggage, and venting frustration on social media. Airfares also rose sharply on many routes.