Good news for travellers! Indian Railways to restore pre-COVID train services

The decision to revert the pre-COVID facilities would likely bring down the current fares by up to 30 per cent.

New Delhi: Providing a much-needed relief to the commuters, the Railways has decided to discontinue special trains and revert to the pre-Covid regular services. With the decision coming into effect, trains will run with their usual names, numbers and fares.

According to a circular issued by the Railway Board on Friday (November 12), trains will be operated with regular numbers and with fares as applicable for the concerned classes of travel and type of train. The decision would likely bring down the current fares by up to 30 per cent.

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Railways was operating about 1,700 trains as mail or express trains, which were halted during the lockdown.

However, during the unlock process, the Railways initiated services of several trains and tagged them as special. And thus the fares were also hiked by upto 30 per cent.

As it takes two-three days for CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems) to make the necessary changes in the software, so the implementation of the new decision is likely to take place after the upgradation process gets completed.

The Railways has also made it clear that it will neither charge any extra charge nor would give any refund on the already booked tickets.