With the ease in restrictions in many States amid the dip in Covid-19 cases, the Indian Railways is planning to restart normal services of passenger trains in a phased manner from September, sources from Indian Railways said.
Railway is also mulling to restart unreserved passenger trains. However, the decision to resume these trains will depend on the requests from states to resume normal operations and of course, the footfall of passengers.
Meanwhile, in a good news for train passengers, the fare policy is gradually going back to track which was stuck since the last two years due to the halt of trains amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Railway has decided to release the new timetable from October. The preparations towards the new working timetable have also started.
As the train services are about to restart in full swing, the Railway authorities have also decided to remove 'zero' from train numbers.
The fare of trains is expected to reduce after the removal of zeros from the train numbers. After the removal of zero, the trains will reportedly run on their old normal fare basis.
As per information, the Railway has decided that the fare of some special trains in their own way even though there is no special occassion while passengers will be charged as per earlier rates in other selected trains.
Union Minister of State for Railways had earlier revealed that the Railway has suffered losses to the tune of Rs 36,000 crore during the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides, the Railway had reportedly improved its operating ratio to 97.45% owing to no concessions and tightening of expenses due to Covid-19.