Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday informed the introduction of a special train service between New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra to accommodate the surge in passenger traffic.
According to the minister in his X post, Northern Railway will operate Special Train 04081/04082 for two days–December 12 and 13, 2025–to ensure smooth travel for devotees heading to the revered shrine in Jammu and Kashmir.
Train No. 04081 will depart from New Delhi at 11:45 pm and is scheduled to arrive in Katra at 12:00 pm the following day. The service will halt at key stations including Panipat, Kurukshetra, Ambala Cantt, Ludhiana, Jalandhar Cantt, Pathankot Cantt, Jammu and Shaheed Captain Tushar Mahajan Udhampur before reaching its final destination.
Following widespread demand, Indian Railways has begun supporting smooth travel amid flight cancellations and increased passenger volume during the winter season.
In view of the winter rush, Indian Railways has planned 89 special train services (over 100 trips) across multiple zones between December 6 and December 9.
The services, which commenced last week, were scheduled to run over three days to support smooth travel and ensure adequate connectivity amid rising demand for rail journeys.
Central Railway operated 14 Special train services to cater to increased passenger demand.
These include Train No. 01413/01414 Pune-Bengaluru-Pune; 01409/01410 Pune-Hazrat Nizamuddin-Pune; 01019/01020 Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT)-Madgaon-LTT; 01077/01078 Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT)-Hazrat Nizamuddin-CSMT; 01015/01016 LTT-Lucknow-LTT; 01012/01011 Nagpur-CSMT-Nagpur; 05587/05588 Gorakhpur-LTT-Gorakhpur; and 08245/08246 Bilaspur-LTT-Bilaspur.
South Eastern Railway has planned special trains to handle the surge in demand following recent flight cancellations. These include Train No. 08073/08074 Santragachi-Yelahanka-Santragachi, Train No. 02870/02869 Howrah-CSMT-Howrah Special, and Train No. 07148/07149 Cherlapalli-Shalimar-Cherlapalli.
To manage the extra rush of passengers, South Central Railway is operated three special trains -Train No. 07148 from Cherlapalli to Shalimar, Train No. 07146 from Secunderabad to Chennai Egmore, and Train No. 07150 from Hyderabad to Mumbai LTT.
Eastern Railway operated special train services between Howrah, Sealdah and major destinations. Train No. 03009/03010 Howrah-New Delhi-Howrah Special, Train No. 03127/03128 Sealdah-LTT-Sealdah Special.
Western Railway will operate seven special trains to meet the increased travel demand. These include Train No. 09001/09002 Mumbai Central-Bhiwani Superfast Special (bi-weekly), operating every Tuesday and Friday from Mumbai Central between 9 and 30 December and every Wednesday and Saturday from Bhiwani between 10 and 31 December, totalling 14 trips. (ANI)
