IndiGo cancellations: CR to run six special trains, WR to add coaches to ease passenger rush

Mumbai, Dec 5 (PTI) Central Railway on Friday announced it will run six special trains on key long-distance routes on December 6 and 7 to clear the extra rush of passengers due to widespread flight cancellations across the country.

CR chief public relations officer Swapnil Nila said the special services will operate on Pune-SMVT Bengaluru (Dec 6), Pune-New Delhi (Dec 7), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Madgaon (Dec 7), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-New Delhi (Dec 6), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Lucknow (Dec 6) and Nagpur-CSMT (Dec 6) routes to clear extra rush of passengers.

At the national level, Indian Railways has announced to augment a total of 37 trains with 116 additional coaches, operating over 114 augmented trips across the network to meet the travel demand.

As per a PIB release, the decision was taken to ensure smooth travel and to provide adequate accommodation to stranded and waiting passengers as air travel disruptions led to a sudden surge in rail bookings.

Western Railway (WR) will also temporarily augment additional coaches to four long-distance trains to clear extra passenger rush in view of the surge in travel demand, a spokesperson said.

He said that an extra AC 3-tier coach will be attached to the New Delhi0Lucknow express (Train No. 12429) on December 6 and the Lucknow-New Delhi express (Train No. 12430) on December 7.

Further, five AC 2-tier coaches will be added to the Mumbai Central-New Delhi express (Train No. 12951) from December 6 to 10 and the Sabarmati BG-New Delhi express (Train No. 12957) over the same period, the WR spokesperson said.

IndiGo, which controls about two-thirds of the country's domestic traffic and generally operates around 2,300 flights daily, cancelled over 1,000 flights on Friday.

It caused chaos at major airports across the country, with frustrated passengers scrambling for updates and searching for their baggage. Many passengers vented out their anger on social media, and airfares also sailed northwards for many routes. PTI KK BNM