Indian Railways Cancels More Special Trains Amid COVID-19 Second Wave (Updated List of Discontinued Trains)

Amid the second wave of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Indian Railways has cancelled 28 pairs of special trains from May 9 until further notice. The decision to cancel these special trains has been taken due to an exponential surge in Covid cases and low occupancy.

Under the administration of the Northern Railways zone, the following trains have been cancelled. The list includes eight pairs of Shatabdi, two pairs of Duronto, two pairs of Jan Shatabdi, and two pairs of Rajdhani, including other special trains.

Northern Railway has temporally cancelled these trains. Many of them are regular trains that run between important stations such as Rajdhani Exp from New Delhi to Chennai and Bilaspur. Shatabdi Exp from Chandigarh to Kathgodam and Kalka. Duronto to Jammu and so on.

Railway officials have cited that the number of passengers travelling with reservation in trains has fallen to 5 lakhs a day from approx—20 lakh a day in the last few months. As a result, the railway at several zones has announced discontinuing many long-distance running trains until further notice.

List of Cancelled Train by Eastern Railway Zone

Earlier, the Eastern Railway decided to cancel the following trains from May 7:

• 02019 Howrah-Ranchi Special train cancelled. This train ran six days a week except on Sunday.
• 02339 Howrah-Dhanbad Special train cancelled. This train ran every day.
• 03028 Azimganj-Howrah Special train cancelled. This train ran every day.
• 03501 Haldia-Asansol Special train cancelled. This train ran six days a week except on Sunday.
• 03118 Lalgola-Kolkata Special train cancelled. This train ran on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
• 03117 Kolkata-Lalgola Special train cancelled. This train ran on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

Amid COVID-19 second wave, Eastern Railway zone has announced to cancel more special trains. Here is the updated list of discontinued trains:

• 02343 Sealdah – New Jalpaiguri Special train has been discontinued from 20 May 2021
• 02344 New Jalpaiguri – Sealdah Special train has been discontinued from 21 May 2021
• 02201 Sealdah – Puri Special train has been discontinued from 19 May 2021
• 02202 Puri – Sealdah Special train has been discontinued from 20 May 2021
• 02261 Kolkata – Haldibari Special train has been discontinued from 20 May 2021
• 02262 Haldibari – Kolkata Special train has been discontinued from 21 May 2021
• 03181 Kolkata – Silghat Special train has been discontinued from 24 May 2021
• 03182 Silghat – Kolkata Special train has been discontinued from 25 May 2021
• 03063 Howrah – Balughat Special train has been discontinued from 19 May 2021
• 03064 Balughat – Howrah Special train has been discontinued from 19 May 2021

Meanwhile, Western railway has cancelled more special trains between Ahmedabad – Nagpur, Muzaffarpur and Kevadia:

• 01138 Ahmedabad – Nagpur Special train cancelled. This train has been discontinued from 20 May 2021 to 01 July 2021
• 01137 Nagpur – Ahmedabad Special cancelled. This train has been discontinued from 19 May 2021 to 30 June 2021
• 05270 Ahmedabad – Muzaffarpur Special cancelled. This train has been discontinued from 29 May 2021 till further notice
• 05269 Muzaffarpur – Ahmedabad Special cancelled. This train has been discontinued from 27 May 2021 till further notice
• 09247 Ahmedabad – Kevadia Jan Shatabdi Special cancelled. This train has been discontinued for 20 May 2021
• 09250 Kevadia – Ahmedabad Jan Shatabdi Special cancelled. This train has been discontinued for 20 May 2021

Trains Cancelled by Central Railway Zone

Apart from that, the Central Railway has cancelled 23 passenger trains. The list includes Nagpur-Kolhapur Special and CSMT- Kolhapur Special, and CSMT-Pune Special. These three trains are cancelled up to June 29, July 1, and June 30, respectively.

Indian Railway has made it clear that routes on which regular trains have been cancelled for the time being have other trains running to carry passengers who want to travel.

According to sources, over 2200 railway employees have been tested Covid positive. A majority of them are drivers, guards, and station masters. Testing Covid positive may hamper the operation of trains because these are the frontline staffs of Indian railways. RailMitra is precisely following Indian Railways to keep you updated with the latest news.