In the wake of pandemic, all regular time-tabled passenger services, including Mail/Express trains, passenger and suburban services stand cancelled until 12 August, the Railway Board said on Thursday.
“It has been decided that regular time-tabled passenger services including Mail/Express, passenger and suburban services stand cancelled up to 12.08.2020,” the Railway Board said in a statement.
The Indian Railways on Thursday said it would refund all tickets booked for regular trains between July 1 and August 12 as coronavirus cases in the country surged a month after the government started relaxing some of the restrictions imposed in March. Only special trains announced in May and June will run, the railways said.
Rail services, apart from the movement of some essential cargo, were abruptly halted in late March ahead of efforts to contain the virus that froze almost all economic activity, putting crores out of work overnight.
Earlier this month, the railways had increased the number of special passenger trains running in the country from 30 to over 200. These include 15 pairs of trains running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12 and 100 pairs operating since June 1.
Also, all the tickets booked for the regular time-tabled trains from 1 July-12 August stand cancelled.
“It has also been decided that all the tickets booked for the regular time-tabled trains for the journey date from 01.07.20 to 12.08.20 also stand cancelled and full refund will be generated,” said the Railway Board.