Indian Railways has successfully met the transport demands of over 957 lakh non-suburban passengers (both reserved and unreserved) during the ongoing Diwali and Chhath Puja festive season in 2024. This marks a significant increase in passenger traffic compared to last year, when 923 lakh passengers were served during the same period.
The figures for 2024 indicate that around 34 lakh more passengers have traveled this year compared to last, underscoring the growing reliance on Indian Railways as a preferred mode of transport during the festive period
“Between 1st October and 30th November 2024, Indian Railways is operating more than 7,600 special trains, a notable 73% increase from the 4,500 special trains run in the same period last year. This surge in special train services reflects Indian Railways’ commitment to meeting the increased demand for travel during the festive season” said an official.
On 4th November 2024, a record-breaking 120 lakh passengers (around 20 lakh reserved and over 100 lakh unreserved non-suburban passengers) traveled on Indian Railways, setting the highest single-day passenger record for the year. The number of passengers carried on that day was a testament to the strong demand for rail travel during the peak of the festive season.
In response to this surge, Western Railway (WR) operated 15 special trains on 5th November 2024, and an additional 18 special trains will be run on 6th November 2024, to further accommodate passengers’ needs. Similarly CR also ran dozens of special trains on this occasion.
According to an official, this year Western Railway is running almost 360 special trains during the festive season to various destinations including trains to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa. These special trains are operated in addition to the regular trains run to various destinations from WR. Additional coaches are also being augmented in regular trains as per availability and demand. Similarly CR also ran hundreds of special trains on the occasion this year.
Officials further informed that to ensure smooth travel and to monitor punctuality of trains, special control rooms have been set up at all levels i.e. Railway Board, Zonal, Divisional and station levels. All efforts are taken to provide wide publicity of special trains & to ensure proper dissemination of the information to the public.
Regular Tweets, Social Media posts, Newspaper publicity are being done to keep passengers informed about additional train services. Moreover, Ticket Checking staff, RPF & GRP staff are guiding passengers through the Public Announcement System.
Also, Western Railway has taken several precautionary measures and various elaborate arrangements have been made for proper implementation of crowd management at the stations.
