Vijayawada: Trains back on track, chug to various destinations

Vijayawada: Long wait for thousands of people who wanted to travel to various destinations came to an end as the South Central Railway resumed train services on Monday.

A total of 82 train services will resumed from July 19 to 22. These 82 train services are spread over the entire network of South Central Railways, so that they will be able to meet the travel needs of all commuters under its jurisdiction. Due to cancellation of trains a large number of travelers and commuters suffered many hardships during the Covid pandemic.

With drastic decline in Covid cases in two Telugu States, the South Central Railway resumed train services connecting various destinations.

These unreserved trains will be operated on par with express trains and they will be operated as unreserved express trains so as to benefit the passengers in terms of reduced travel time.

A total of 28 trains pass through Vijayawada railway division. The trains were started from various stations like Vijayawada, Rajamahendravaram, Guduru, Nidadavole, Kakinada,Guntur, Macherla and Visakhapatnam. The Railways had made arrangements to start trains on July 19, 20, 21 and 22 from various destinations.

Farmers, milk vendors, petty traders, students, employees and others will be benefitted with the resuming of train services particularly the passenger and express trains. So far, the Railways have preferred operating trains with reservation facility. Now, unreserved trains are operated from Monday.

Passengers will be able to purchase their tickets through all the mediums – both at the booking counters in the stations as well other non-physical interactive mediums like UTS App (online), ATVM (Automatic Ticket Vending Machines), CoTVMs (Coin Ticket Vending Machines) etc.

In view of the Covid-19 pandemic and the importance of maintaining physical distance, passengers are encouraged to use the mediums such as UTS App and ATVMs, thereby by avoiding the queue at the booking centres. Further, passengers will also have the facility of buying season tickets as well.

Significantly, taking advantage of suspension of train services during the Covid pandemic, the Railways undertook major track strengthening works. These have resulted in the enhancement of the maximum permissible speed at which trains can travel over its network at several sections. To pass on the benefit of these track enhancement works to the passenger in terms of reduced travel time, these trains will be operated as unreserved express train services.

Gajanan Mallya, general manager, South Central Railway has appealed to all passengers to follow the Covid protocols while both at the stations and also in the trains.

He said that, while these train services are being resumed to meet the demands of passengers, adequate precautions like compulsorily wearing face masks, maintaining physical distance, frequent sanitisation, etc should be practiced for the safety of all rail passengers.