On 4th November 2024, over 3 Crore (30 million) passengers travelled in Indian Railways trains on a single day, achieving a historical milestone.
Indian Railways has set a new record with over 3 Crore (30 million) passengers travelling in their trains on a single day, on 4th November 2024, as per the announcement by the Ministry of Railways, Govt. of India, today on 6th November 2024.
Indian Railways has achieved this historic milestone by transporting over 3 crore passengers in a single day on November 4, 2024, to meet the festive season demand this year. As per the data provided by them, on this day they carried a record number of 120.72 lakh (12.07 million) non-suburban passengers, which included 19.43 lakh (1.943 million) reserved passengers and 101.29 lakh (10.129 million) unreserved non-suburban passengers. Also, their suburban passenger traffic reached a record 180 lakh (18 million) passengers, making it the highest single-day passenger figure of the year.
Also, as per their data, approximately 6.85 crore (68.5 million) passengers travelled in Indian Railways to places in the states of Bihar, Eastern UP, and Jharkhand alone, in a period of only 5 days between the 1st of October to the 5th of November 2024, through the regular schedule trains. This massive number of travellers, travelling to only three states in India in a period of five days, is more than twice the combined populations of Australia and New Zealand. This gives you a picture of the massive demand for, and the massive capacity of, Indian Railways.
To meet the increased travel demand during the festive season between October 1 to November 30, 2024, Indian Railways had announced a total of 7,724 special trains, which is 73% more than their last year’s 4,429 special train services. With this substantial increase in the number of special trains, they aim for seamless train travel by trying to meet the massive demand and rush during this peak festival season. Over the past four days, Indian Railways has operated an average of 175 special trains per day to transport passengers to their destinations for Chhath Puja festival.
Their notification further states that Indian Railways is preparing for the anticipated return rush beginning November 8, 2024, with the ending of Chhath Puja festival. Special trains have been announced to accommodate returning passengers, with additional trains planned for the certain divisions as required to meet local demands.
The return rush for Chhath Puja is set to begin after sunrise on November 8, 2024, with 164 special trains scheduled to accommodate the high seasonal rush. Indian Railways has also planned 160 special trains for November 9, 161 for November 10, and 155 for November 11, to manage the expected surge in travellers during this festive period.[1]
Special trains are additional number of trains that are run in addition to the already scheduled trains that run regularly in the designated routes between two destinations. Indian Railways provides such special trains that are additional trains on select routes to meet any seasonal rush or demands along such routes, when the number of regular scheduled trains may not be enough to meet the heavy seasonal demand.
The massive capacity of the Indian Railways network is truly incredible, with such a large population of India travelling on it. Train travel is one of the best ways to explore India and it also can be a cheap and best way to travel far and wide across India. However, it can get very crowded during festive or holiday seasons or around long weekends, etc., so you may need to plan well in advance or wait until special trains are available during such times, for booking on the official IRCTC website.
Recently, Indian Railways reduced the Advance Reservation Period to 60 days (from the earlier 120 days), for booking train tickets, which came into effect from 01 November 2024, which they said was to promote genuine passengers booking the advance tickets and to minimise the rising "no show" trend that they had observed.
Apart from their regular and seasonal train services, Indian Railways also runs special tourist trains or tour packages which cover selected routes with destinations. You can find them on their official IRCTC website under the "Holidays" tab.
Also See : Train routes in India where you can enjoy spectacular scenic rides in Vistadome coaches
References
- Indian Railways sets new record: Over 3 Crore passengers travelled in India Railways in a single day on 4th November, 2024 - Ministry of Railways, Posted On: 06 NOV 2024 8:27PM by PIB Delhi. Retrieved on 06 November 2024.