The Railway Board on Thursday announced that all regular time-tabled railway services including mail and express trains stand cancelled until August 12 due to the widespread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Railways Board stated, “It has been decided that regular time-tabled passenger services including Mail/Express, passenger and suburban services stand cancelled up to 12.08.2020.”
Although the special trains running during the lockdown due to emergency purposes will remain to operate, thirty special trains had started initially, and 200 more began operation since June 1. There are currently 230 special trains which are running on a pan-India basis to ease travel for citizens stuck away from their destination. The special Rajdhani Express started operating from May 12 and Special Mail/Express from June 1.
The Railway Board also mentioned that the tickets booked for trains scheduled from July 1 to August 12 would be cancelled. “It has also been decided that all the tickets booked for the regular time-table trains for the journey date from 01.07.20 to 12.08.20 also stand cancelled and a full refund will be generated,” added the board.
The Indian Railways also decided to refund the total ticket prices for regular trains which were booked before April 12. Bookings for regular train tickets after 120 days from April 14 will be cancelled directly by Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and a full refund will be automatically initiated.
The IRCTC had stopped all operations related to reservation for regular railway services from April 15. All regular train services had been suspended from working across the country after the commencement of the first lockdown since March 25.
