How Indian Railways is pushing to stay on top of festive season rush

Faced with unusually high number of travellers during Diwali and Chhath this year, the Indian Railways has increased its festival special trains by 65 per cent from last year. From October 1 to November 30, it has scheduled 7,296 special trains; last year, 4,429 special trains were run during the period.
This increase is helping ease crowding and allowing more people to travel home and back for festivals. On November 4, the railways moved 12 million unreserved non-suburban passengers, double the numbers around Diwali.
By October-end, the railways had run 3,164 special trains, moving some 6.4 million people—almost 2.75 million in reserved seats and 3.65 million as unreserved passengers. During the month, the railways handled 18 million more non-suburban passengers than the same period last year.
It’s not over yet, though. The millions of migrant workers, who make the bulk of this festive rush, will now be taking trains back to the towns and cities they work in. Clearly, it’s all hands on deck. Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inspected arrangements in Kerala during Diwali while Railway Board chairman Satish Kumar did an assessment at New Delhi station.
“Everything is ready. Our priority is to give trains to the people. Last year, the count was around 4,000, but this year, we arranged for about 7,750 trainsâ€æ,” said Kumar.
Vaishnaw, as part of the checks and feedback, also entered crowded unreserved compartments of some festival special trains and interacted with passengers.
Train services have had a higher demand partly because air tickets cost much more during festivals. In past years, domestic flight prices shot up by 15-30 per cent during busy travel times, forcing many people to opt for the more economical trains.
The train rush has also brought in the challenge of crowd control at railway stations. Not the least because on October 27, a stampede broke out at Mumbai’s Bandra Terminus, leaving nine people injured—two of them seriously.
The stampede occurred just before 6 am when passengers were rushing to board that 22921 Bandra-Gorakhpur Antyodaya Express, which was supposed to leave within minutes. The crowd-swell was caused by Diwali-Chhath travellers. Many of them had tried to catch the train even while it was in motion, worsening the situation.
The railways introduced various steps to control crowds in the subsequent days. These include ground staff at stations updating the ministry every four hours with photographs of platforms.
The stampede, however, invited criticism from the Opposition, who accused Vaishnaw of ignoring passenger safety. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray even called Vaishnaw “incapable”—a remark viewed as prompted by the upcoming elections in Maharashtra.
All interventions that ease the pressure on railways by increasing capacity are long-term projects. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs this year approved six projects to add more tracks across the railway network, at an estimated Rs 12,343 crore. These projects are expected to reduce crowding and improve train movement on busy routes.
The National Rail Plan (NRP) for India 2030 aims to build a ‘future-ready’ railway system in the next six years. It focuses on boosting the share of freight to 45 per cent and creating more capacity to handle growth all the way up to 2050.
Subscribe to India Today Magazine