It’s curtains for Ludhiana/Moga-New Delhi Shatabdi

LUDHIANA: The stage has been set for the unceremonious burial of elite 1203738 LudhianaNew DelhiLudhiana and 1204344 New DelhiMogaNew Delhi Shatabdi Express trains from October 4 and 5

Updated At : 01:03 PM Aug 06, 2019 IST

The New Delhi-Ludhiana/Moga-New Delhi Shatabdi has been scrapped and replaced with intercity express train. File photo

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, August 5

The stage has been set for the unceremonious burial of elite 12037/38 Ludhiana-New Delhi-Ludhiana and 12043/44 New Delhi-Moga-New Delhi Shatabdi Express trains from October 4 and 5.

These trains would be rechristened as 22479/80 and 22485/86 to run as intercity express train. At present, the Ludhiana-New Delhi Shatabdi Express train runs on five days of the week (Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday), while the New Delhi-Moga Shatabdi runs on Monday and Saturday.

According to the railway officials, in its new avatar, the 22479/80 Intercity Express would be extended to Lohian Khas, passing through Jalandhar city and Sultanpur Lodhi. It would leave New Delhi at 7 am, reach Ludhiana at 12: 25 pm and depart after 10 minutes for its onward journey to reach Lohian Khas at 2:55 pm. On its return journey, the 22480 Intercity Express would leave Lohian Khas at 3:35 pm, reach Ludhiana at 5:55 and depart at 6:05 pm for New Delhi, where it would arrive at 11:35 pm.

Similarly, the 22485 trains which would replace the New Delhi-Ludhiana-Moga Shatabdi Express (on Monday and Saturday) would leave New Delhi at 7am arrive Ludhiana at 12:25 pm and depart at 12:50 pm for Moga to reach there at 2:05 pm. The 22486 train would depart from Moga at 4:25 pm, arrive Ludhiana at 5:37 pm and depart after a halt of 28 minutes (dep 6:05 pm) leave for New Delhi to reach there at 11:35 pm.

Both trains would have AC Chair Car, Chair Car and general coaches with stoppage at Shakurbasti, Bahadurgarh, Rohtak, Jind, Narwana, Tohana, Jakhal, Sangrur and Dhuri.

The pair of Shatabdi trains was launched with much fanfare (the Union Minister of State for Railways had flagged off the train from Ludhiana in November 2011) some eight years ago. The future of this particular pair of Shatabdi train had always been hanging in the balance since the Railways considered it as economically unviable due to low occupancy. However, the business community and frequent travelers were of the view that the schedule as well as the route of the train was ill-chosen.