Overview
- India’s rail network is operating more than 12,000 special trains this season, up from 7,724 last year, with Central Railway leading at 1,998 services, followed by Northern (1,919) and Western (1,501), according to the Railways’ latest tally.
- Despite the expanded schedule, footage and reports show heavy crowding and long queues at hubs including Surat’s Udhna, Mumbai’s LTT, Jhansi and Kanpur, with passengers describing packed coaches and extended waits.
- Railways have set up large holding areas (about 3,000-capacity each) with basic amenities, opened extra and mobile ticket counters, restricted platform ticket sales in busy stations, and deployed RPF along with volunteers for crowd management.
- Authorities say more than 20 social-media accounts were identified for allegedly misleading posts, FIRs have been initiated, and a 24x7 monitoring cell is active as passengers are urged to follow official channels for updates.
- New and ongoing services include Western Railway’s Bandra Terminus–Jodhpur superfast specials on Oct 22, 23, 29 and 30; Central Railway’s CSMT–Danapur special on Oct 18, 22, 26 and 30; Northern Railway’s five pairs to Bihar from Oct 22–26; and North Western Railway’s 44 pairs plus 174 added coaches on regular trains.