NAGPUR: The Central Railway’s decision to run a special train between Nagpur and Pune on Sunday paid off with the entire train getting booked within an hour of the reservation window getting opened.

Central Railway divisional railway manager (DRM) Tushar Kant Pandey had taken note of the surging demand for tickets to Pune from various quarters and decided to run the one-way special train (01166) on November 19.

The Nagpur-Pune route is the most sought-after in the region mainly because of a large number of Nagpur students and job-seekers going to Pune for higher studies and employment.

Post-Diwali vacation, many keen to return to Pune were on the waiting lists of existing trains.With all the trains to Pune showing ‘no room’, the Nagpur division of Central Railway’s decision to run a special train to Pune came as a blessing in disguise for many.

The train left Nagpur at 9.30 pm on Sunday and will reach Pune by 12.10 pm on Monday.“We were happy to see that the entire train with air-conditioned coaches was booked in an hour, even before we could publicize the decision properly,” says Ashutosh Shrivastava, senior divisional commercial manager (SrDCM).“The booking opened at 7.30 pm on Saturday and by 9 pm all the 700 AC-III and AC-II berths were booked.

On Sunday, the waiting list went up to 32 for AC-II and 84 for AC-III.

There were 12 AC-II and 9 AC-III coaches in the train,” said Shrivastava.

Being a special train, for AC-II travel, the cost per ticket was ₹2,200 while for AC-III berth it was ₹1600.

The fares are less for regular trains.

Yet, passengers went for the special train tickets as the fares were still less when compared with private buses that were charging anything between ₹2,500 and ₹5,000 per person.Rail Yatri Sangh president Brij Bhushan Shukla said, “The way berths were booked indicates huge demand on the Nagpur-Pune sector.

It calls for either starting a Vande Bharat train to Pune or regularizing either Pune Garib Rath or Nagpur-Pune Express.”We also published the following articles recentlyCentral Railway to run 36 Special trains between Mumbai-Thivim, Pune/Panvel-Karmali and Pune -AjniCentral Railway will be operating 36 special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers during the Christmas and Winter season in 2023.

The trains will run between Mumbai-Thivim, Pune-Karmali, Panvel-Karmali, and Pune-Ajni.

The trains will have various halts and different compositions of coaches.

In addition, four fully reserved puja special trains will also be running between Panvel and Gorakhpur to accommodate the increased passenger demand.

Bookings for these trains will open on November 21, 2023.Cricket World Cup fever: Central Railway and WR to run special trainsTo facilitate cricket fans traveling to Gujarat for the World Cup final, special trains will be operated by both Western and Central Railway.

The Bandra Terminus - Ahmedabad Special will depart from Bandra Terminus on Saturday and arrive in Ahmedabad the next day.

Similarly, the Ahmedabad - Bandra Terminus Special will return on Monday.

Central Railway will also run a special express from CSMT to Ahmedabad and back.Western Railway to run cricket World Cup special trains to AhmedabadWestern Railway will be running superfast special trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to cater to the rush of people going for the cricket World Cup final match.

These trains will run on special fare and will have designated stops at various stations in both directions.

The train from Bandra Terminus will depart at 11.45 pm and reach Ahmedabad at 7.20 am the next day, while the train from Ahmedabad will depart at 4 am and arrive at Bandra Terminus at 12.10 pm the same day.

Another train will depart from Mumbai Central at 11.55 pm and reach Ahmedabad at 8.45 am the next day.