In view of the heavy rush in several Special trains, the Ministry of Railways has decided to run 20 pairs (40 trains) of clone Special trains from September 21, which will be fully reserved and will run on notified timings. The reservation for these trains will start on September 19.
The stoppages of these trains will be limited to operational halts.
The 19 pairs of clone Special trains will run by utilising Humsafar Express rakes, consisting of 18 coaches each, while 1 pair 04251/04252 Lucknow-Delhi clone Special with 22 coaches will run as Jan Shatabdi Express.
The fare of Humsafar train rake will be charged as per Humsafar Express trains and the fare for Janshatabdi rake will be charged as per Janshatabdi Express. The ARP (Advance Reservation Period) for these trains will be 10 days.
Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav, during a virtual press conference on September 5, had announced that the clone trains would be run on routes with higher occupancy. These Clone Special trains will be in addition to the 310 pairs of trains currently in operation.
Here’s the list of 40 Clone Special Trains
Clone trains have not been operated by the Indian Railways in the past. The clone trains being proposed, are based on the patronization of already operating special trains with limited stoppages and faster transit time.
The clone trains will primarily be 3 AC trains and run ahead of the already operating special trains.
The Ministry said that the clone train will have a speed higher than the existing special train.
The Railways suspended passenger, Mail and Express trains in the wake of the nationwide lockdown from March 25.
Shramik Special trains were run to ferry stranded migrant workers, students, pilgrims and tourists from May 1. As many as 15 pairs of Special trains were pressed into service from May 12 and 100 pairs of time-tabled trains from June 1.
From September 12, the Railways has also started operation of 40 more pairs of time-tabled trains.
Source: dnaindia.com