indigo-crisis-railways-ramp-up-services-to-meet-passenger-surge

The ongoing flight crises in IndiGo airlines prompted the Indian Railways to announce 84 special trains across all zones for Saturday to help people facing travel disruptions.

The trains, which are to make 104 trips, were arranged by the Railway Ministry in the shortest possible time after an in-depth analysis of train traffic situations in major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Patna, and Howrah, among others.

“The number of special trains and their trips might increase further depending on the traffic scenario. All zones have been asked to make use of all available resources, including rolling stock as well as manpower, to safely operate these trains for the convenience of lakhs of passengers stranded at different parts of the country due to flight cancellations,” said Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information & Publicity, Railway Board.

Officials said efforts are being made to spread information about the trains, with some divisions even posting information at nearby airports to make the passengers aware so that they could make alternate travel arrangements.

The South Western Railway announced a series of special trains, in coordination with Central, South Eastern and Southern Railways, to clear stranded passengers.

The special services will operate between December 6 and 10 on high-demand routes, including Bengaluru–Chennai, Bengaluru–Pune, Yesvantpur–Hazrat Nizamuddin, Shalimar–Yelahanka and Ernakulam–Yelahanka, officials said.

According to an official statement, SWR will run Train No. 06255/06256 between Chennai Egmore and KSR Bengaluru, 06257/06258 between Bengaluru and MGR Chennai Central, 06259/06260 between Yesvantpur and Hazrat Nizamuddin, and 06263/06264 between Bengaluru and Pune.

Central Railway will operate Train No. 01413/01414 between Pune and Bengaluru, while South Eastern Railway will run Train No. 08073/08074 between Shalimar and Yelahanka. Southern Railway will operate Train No. 06147/06148 between Ernakulam and Yelahanka, the statement said.

Railways has advised passengers to check updated timings on its official channels and arrive early at stations.

 

 

South Eastern Railway also issued a press release and informed the Airport Authority to display information regarding the newly introduced special train services, as did Central Railway and Northern Railway, who planned 14 and 10 special trains respectively, and officials said these numbers are being further reviewed to meet any rising requirements.

“Western Railway will run seven special trains on a special fare between Mumbai Central-New Delhi, Mumbai Central-Bhiwani, Mumbai Central-Shakur Basti, Bandra Terminus-Durgapura, Valsad-Bilaspur, Sabarmati-Delhi and Sabarmati-Delhi Sarai Rohilla stations,” a press note said.

Similarly, South Central Railway on Saturday announced that it would run four special trains to manage the surge in passengers resulting from the large-scale cancellation of IndiGo flights.

For at least five days in a row, IndiGo flight operations have significantly disrupted, with a large number of cancellations and delays causing hardships to thousands of passengers. In many cases, baggages have been misplaced. 

A press statement from the Railway Ministry said that the Southern Railway (SR) has carried out the highest number of augmentations, enhancing capacity in 18 trains.
 
“Additional Chair Car and Sleeper Class coaches have been deployed on high-demand routes. These augmentations, implemented from 6 December 2025 onward, substantially expand accommodation capacity in the southern region,” the note said.
 
It added, “Northern Railway (NR) follows with augmentations on eight trains, adding 3AC and Chair Car coaches. These measures implemented today onwards enhance availability on heavily travelled northern corridors.”
 
According to the ministry, the Western Railway (WR) has increased four high-demand trains by adding 3AC and 2AC coaches and the augmentations, effective from December 6, to cater to strong passenger movement from western regions to the national capital.
 
“East Central Railway (ECR) has strengthened the Rajendra Nagar-New Delhi (12309) service with additional 2AC coaches over five trips between 6-10 December 2025, providing enhanced capacity on this important Bihar-Delhi sector,” officials from the ministry said.
 
“East Coast Railway (ECOR) has augmented the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi services (Trains 20817/20811/20823) by adding 2AC coaches across five trips, improving connectivity between Odisha and the capital,” they added.

 

Talking about the arrangements done by the Eastern Railway (ER), the ministry informed that it has implemented augmentations in three key trains, adding Sleeper Class coaches over six trips on December 7 and 8, meeting increased regional and inter-state travel demand in the east.
 
Along with these enhancements, the Indian Railways is also operating four special train services to further support passengers.
 
The Gorakhpur-Anand Vihar Terminal-Gorakhpur Special (05591/05592) will operate four trips between December 7 and 9. The New Delhi-Martyr Captain Tushar Mahajan-New Delhi Reserved Vande Bharat Special (02439/02440) will run on December 6, providing fast and comfortable connectivity to the Jammu region, the officials said.
 
They added that to meet high demand towards the western sector, the New Delhi-Mumbai Central-New Delhi Reserved Superfast Special (04002/04001) will operate on December 6 and 7.
 
“Additionally, the Hazrat Nizamuddin-Thiruvananthapuram Central Reserved Superfast Special (04080) will run one-way on December 6, offering long-distance connectivity towards the southern region,” the ministry said.