Southern Railways operates 244 special train trips this summer

CHENNAI: Southern Railway (SR) is operating a whopping 244 trips of 50 special trains for the convenience to clear extra rush of passengers,

Tambaram – Tirunelveli/Sengottai, Chennai Egmore – Kanniyakumari/Nagercoil/Velankanni, Thiruvananthapuram –Mangaluru and Kochuveli – SMVT Bengaluru among others are some major routes connected through the operation of the 50 special trains this summer to augment connectivity between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

In addition to the special trains operated by the zone, other railway zones have notified the operation of 37 summer special trains covering 526 trips to various destinations in Southern Railway with Chennai, Tiruchchirappalli, Coimbatore, Madurai, Velankanni and Mangaluru being among the major destinations connected by the 37 trains.

Also, summer (reserved) special trains are being run in Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) for the benefit of tourists visiting the hill towns Ooty and Coonoor. The zone has also been operating round trip NMR joy ride services between Udhagamandalam and Ketti during weekends from April last.

Indian Railways operating 380 summer special Trains covering 6369 trips

Altogether, Indian Railways is running 6,369 trips of 380 special trains during this summer season this year, against the 4,599 trips by 348 trains in 2022, to clear extra rush of passengers. While an average 13.2 trips per train was run last summer, 16.8 trips per special train are being made in the current year, an officer of Southern Railway said.

Coach capacity

A whopping 25,974 general and 55,243 sleeper coaches have been used for the 380 special trains covering 6,369 trips. General Coaches have a capacity of 100 passengers each. Each sleeper coach accommodates 72 passengers (ICF made) and 78 passengers (LHB).

Railway department takes continuous process inputs from all the communication channels 24x 7 like media reports, Social media platforms and Railway Integrated helpline number 139 apart from details of waitlist passengers in the PRS system to assess demand of trains on a particular route.