Diwali rush spurs long waiting lists in trains

With Diwali round the corner, people are busy booking tickets of trains bound to their native places. The trains running towards Bihar and Uttar Pradesh particularly are running with long waiting lists.

Ludhiana has a large working population from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. These people rush to their native places during major festivals and the best mode of travelling is train. The major trains like Himgiri, Amritsar Hawrah Express, Amritsar Hawrah Mail, Gareeb Rath, Amarpali, Jhelum Express and Sealdah Express are showing long waiting lists.

The railway officials said as the festival would come nearer, these trains would be having no room at all. The rush would take a u-turn after Diwali and especially after Chhatt Pooja, as people visiting native places would start coming back to Ludhiana, the officials added.

Government railway police inspector Inderjeet Singh said, “As the rush has increased due to festival season and there are long queues at the reservation counter, we have deployed extra force to manage the rush. The security has also been tightened.”

New train for Holi

In order to clear the extra rush during Diwali and Chhatt Pooja, railway decided to run a special totally unreserved train from Ferozepur Cant and Saharasa on the name of Saharsa-Ferozepur Cant Jansadharan special train.

This train will start from October 14 from Ferozepur Cant station and will run on the route till November 15. People from Ludhiana will get benefit of the train, as city has a huge migrant population from UP and Bihar. As the train is totally unreserved, people will not miss train due to waiting list.

Waiting status (on October 13)

Himgiri Express- 637
Sealdah Express- 375
Shaheed Express- 200
Garib Rath- 350
Jhelum Express- 246
ASR KIR Express- 292