Big news for train passengers! Indian Railways may open up all passenger services in April – The Financial Express

At present, 704 local trains are running on the Western Railway route in Mumbai, through which, 3.95 lakh passengers are traveling.The graded increase in passenger train services may lead to a full resumption of all passenger train operations from April 1, 2021, in view of the festive season. Railways suspended all passenger trains in March 2020 following the national lockdown to combat Covid 19 pandemic. The Railways have been increasing the number of train services over the past few months with more than 65% trains now running across the country. More than 250 were added in January 2021 alone and more trains will be added gradually.Related NewsCommerce & industry and railways minister Piyush Goyal had earlier this month said that normal train services will be decided upon in consultation with other stakeholders as Covid situation is being monitored. While the vaccination drive has gathered momentum, there was need to adhere to precautions and preventions, the minister said.“There is no such given date. All factors need to be considered and inputs of all stakeholders must be factored in before taking a decision in this regard,” a railway spokesperson told FE. The decision will cover all types of trains including general, Shatabdi and Rajdhani. Almost all suburban or metro trains have also come back on track. At present, 704 local trains are running on the Western Railway route in Mumbai, through which, 3.95 lakh passengers are traveling. At the same time, 706 local trains are being run on the Central Railway route, in which about 4.57 lakh people are travelling.Meanwhile, anticipating a larger passenger flow, the Indian Railway Tourism and Catering Corporation has upgraded its user interface and equipped its payment gateway “i-Pay” with “AutoPay” feature which ensures higher reliability of ticket booking and reduces the user’s time in keying in the payment instrument details. This feature will also minimise the refund time for tatkal bookings for the transactions that remain waitlisted and attract auto cancellation. One of the largest e-commerce websites in Asia-Pacific, IRCTC books 83% of the total reserved tickets over the Railways.Get live Stock Prices from BSE, NSE, US Market and latest NAV, portfolio of Mutual Funds, Check out latest IPO News, Best Performing IPOs, calculate your tax by Income Tax Calculator, know market’s Top Gainers, Top Losers & Best Equity Funds. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.Financial Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest Biz news and updates.