‘Special tag’ to go from trains on 17 Chandigarh routes

Chandigarh, November 15

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Trains plying on 17 routes to and from the Chandigarh railway station will not have the “special tag”, which had been introduced during the first Covid-19 lockdown, shows the latest notification issued by the Central Government.

As far as the price is concerned, fares will be charged as per the existing guidelines.

According to a railway notification dated November 13, 66 pairs of trains under the Ambala Division of the Northern Railways will be regularised. Out of this, 17 will ply over the Chandigarh railway station.

“It has now been decided that MSPC and HSP trains will be included in the working time table – 2021,” the notification states.

At present, 35 pairs of ‘special’ trains are running over the city station. An official said: “All trains were being run as special trains during the Covid and their numbers were changed. Now, as and when CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems) updates the number of the train to its original one, which it had before Covid lockdown, the train will be running as a regular train.”

The notification clearly mentions that the ticket fares will be charged “as applicable for the concerned classes of travel and type of train as per the extant guidelines”.

A Railway spokesperson said: “There is no update on the train ticket rates so far and whatever the change, bookings done in advance will not be refunded.” Of the many trains, Jan Shatabdi, which was operating under train numbers 02057 and 02058, will soon run as train numbers 12057 and 12058. New Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi trains will also run as regular trains, along with Unchahar Express, Hemkunt Express, Chandigarh-New Delhi Shatabdi and Amritsar Lucknow Express, among others.

“At the moment, ticket fares are low of trains on which food is served directly to passengers. This may change once we revert to the old system and the price of food is added,” the official said. — TNS