Hyderabad: Due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, most of the train services were stopped. They are now slowly getting back on track with South Central Railway (SCR) restoring express trains in a phased manner across the zone.

For passengers who are heading on long journeys, the railways is seeking to restore full-fledged express train services. The SCR is increasing the number of trains in a graded manner and presently, around 80 percent of express trains are operational from the zone.

The SCR stated that 190 express trains used to be operated daily, weekly, and bi-weekly before Covid-19. At present, nearly 150 express trains are being run while another 22 trains will be restored from April 1 onwards, including Secunderabad-Vijayawada Shatavahana Express and Secunderabad–Visakhapatnam Garibrath Express.

Passengers can travel to long distances like Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Tirupathi, Bengaluru, Trivandrum, Mumbai, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Howrah as SCR has restored express trains to these destinations.

Major trains which operate from the twin cities include Hyderabad-New Delhi Telangana Express, Hyderabad-Mumbai Hussain Sagar Express, Secunderabad-Howrah Falaknuma Express, Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam Godavari Express, Hyderabad-Chennai Charminar Express, Secunderabad-Tirupathi Narayanadri Express, and Lingampally-Kakinada Gautami Express.

SCR officials said the reserved services of special trains were being restored and passengers need to book tickets either through the IRCTC portal or at the reservation counters.

“On average, 2 lakh passengers are travelling from the zone every day including 40,000 from the twin cities. Before Covid-19, around 10 lakh passengers used to travel daily. Once we restore the normal trains and resume unreserved tickets, the footfall will be 100 percent,” said a senior official.

Passenger trains like Kakatiya Passenger, Repalle Passenger, and push-pull are yet to be resumed. The zone used to operate 500 passenger train services every day across the zone including 121 MMTS services in Hyderabad.

MMTS yet to start

MMTS services in the city are yet to start. For 11 months, sub-urban trains were confined to sheds due to the pandemic. The MMTS services used to handle around 1.6 lakh passengers every day through 121 services. It serves rail users from around 25 local stations apart from Secunderabad, Kacheguda, and Hyderabad.

UTS app to be re-activated

The unreserved ticketing system (UTS), a facility to book unreserved tickets, will be reactivated in the zone soon. Already, the Indian railways has reactivated this facility in some zones. To avoid any inconvenience to passengers in booking unreserved tickets and ensure physical distance at booking counters while purchasing the tickets, the UTS facility will be reintroduced.

Zonal Railways have been instructed that whenever unreserved train services are introduced on any zone, the Zonal Railway concerned should accordingly enable the UTS app for issuing unreserved tickets.