States ask Railways to cancel trains due to rising COVID cases: Railway Official

Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav on Friday said that they have been getting requests from state governments to cancel trains, reduce the frequency and cancel some stoppages, depending on the COVID-19 situation.

New Delhi: Due to the rise in Coronavirus cases across the country, states like Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and West Bengal have asked the national transporter to cancel trains, reduce the frequency or reduce stoppages, informed Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav, on Friday.

While addressing a virtual press conference, the Railway Official told media, "We have been getting requests from state governments to cancel trains, reduce the frequency and cancel some stoppages, depending on the COVID-19 situation."

He mentioned that due to these requests, Railways is not been able to announce new passenger trains but the national transporter is closely monitoring the situation and is fully prepared to run more passenger trains.

"Tamil Nadu had requested us to cancel 7 trains from June 29 to July 15, which are running within the state. West Bengal made a request to reduce the frequency of 5 trains going to the state and Odisha requested to cancel some stoppages. While on Thursday, Jharkhand Government also sent a request to cancel two trains which were crossing those cities which are badly affected by Covid," said Yadav.

However, he stated that fewer passenger operations have helped Railways to increase freight operations by almost 50 per cent during this period. The freight loading had started picking up from June.

Railways is just 20 per cent less than the last year.

but has transported double food grains, during this period, as compared to the last year.

"Even the average speed of freight trains has almost doubled due to less traffic on the network. Earlier, their average speed used to be 23 kmph, which has now improved to 45-46 kmph," said the Railway official.

On Shramik Special Trains, Yadav informed that Railways has run 4,615 trains till now, transporting 63 lakh passengers. Out of the total trains, 89 per cent were operated in the month of May. He also reiterated that Railways has met all of its demands and will continue to run these trains if get any fresh demands from states.

Highlighting the usage of COVID Care Centers, Railway Board Chairman said, "In Delhi, there are 503 coaches placed. 57 people got admitted in these isolation wards out of which 27 have been discharged. While in UP, these coaches have been placed in 16 districts. 241 patients were admitted, 106 discharged and 135 are still there."