Travelmail » Rail Tourism

Mobile recharge coupons now available at stations

travelmail — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:07:51 +0000

breakingtravelnews.in BTNIndia
The Ministry of Railways has decided that the rechargeable coupons for mobile phones would be made available for the benefit of the passengers at the STD/PCO booths at Railway Stations. As per the decision, all Zonal Railways are being permitted to allow sale of recharge coupons from the existing STD/PCO booths at the Railway stations which opt for selling the recharge coupons on payment of the following additional license fee as per the category of the station.
Category of Station Additional License Fee per month
A-1 and A Rs. 500/-
B and C Rs. 300/-
D, E and F Rs. 200/-
The STD/PCO booths opting for the scheme will be required to display a sign indicating that “recharge coupons for mobile phone are available” and will not be allowed to display the name of service provider companies.
The above approval is being initially granted for a period of one year upto June 30, 2011 only. Thereafter, the scheme will be reviewed by the Railway Board on the basis of detailed information regarding number of booths opting for the scheme, additional license fee realized etc. to be received from all Zonal Railways.

Railway revenue earnings up by 3.44%

travelmail — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:57:47 +0000

breakingtravelnews.in BTNIndia
The total approximate earnings of Indian Railways on originating basis during the period from July 1 to 10, 2010 were Rs. 2267.35 crore compared to Rs. 2191.91 crore during the same period last year, registering an increase of 3.44 per cent. The total goods earnings have gone up from Rs. 1445.45 crore during the period from July 1to 10 July 2009 to Rs. 1503.83 crore during same period, showing an increase of 4.04 per cent. The total passenger revenue earnings during the period were Rs. 684.22 crore compared to Rs. 666.37 crore during the same period last year, reflecting an increase of 2.68 per cent. The revenue earnings from other coaching amounted to Rs. 63.16 crore during this period compared to Rs. 56.49 crore during the same period last year, showing an increase of 11.81 per cent.
The total approximate numbers of passengers booked were 218.70 million compared to 210.09 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 4.10 per cent. In the suburban and non-suburban sectors, the numbers of passengers booked were 115.03 million and 103.67 million compared to 110.56 million and 99.53 million during the same period last year, registering an increase of 4.04 per cent and 4.16 per cent respectively.

Railway provide increased accessibility on IRCTC website

travelmail — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:05:49 +0000

breakingtravelnews.in BTNIndia
In a significant initiative to remove the difficulties faced by ordinary common users in accessing the IRCTC website for booking Tatkal tickets and ordinary tickets over internet in the first hour of the booking on the opening day, the Ministry of Railways has decided to bar travel agents, web-service agents/web agents of IRCTC from accessing the website during that period.
Under this decision, which is expected to provide increased accessibility of the IRCTC website to the ordinary users, following instructions have come into operation:
a) Travel agents/web-services agents/web agents of IRCTC will not be given access to Tatkal booking, through e-ticketing on all days between 8 am to 9 am.
b) Travel agents/web-services agents/web agents of IRCTC will not be given access, through e-ticketing, to trains defined in the system on their respective opening day of Advance Reservation Period (ARP), between 8 am to 9 am.
This passenger friendly measure comes in the wake of a large number of complaints regarding IRCTC website not becoming accessible to common users at the time of the commencement of the Railway reservation booking in the morning, making it difficult to book e-ticket and Tatkal on-line.
In addition, a drive has also been launched for a period of one fortnight at all major reservation offices to conduct special checks between 7.30 am to 9 am to prevent touts/unscrupulous elements from cornering the seats/berths in the first hour of the opening day of the advance reservation period.

‘Commonwealth Express’ Exhibition Train

travelmail — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:19:53 +0000

The Union Minister for Railways, Mamata Banerjee flagging off the ‘Commonwealth Express’ Train, in New Delhi on June 24, 2010. Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi, K.H. Muniyappa, Minister of State for Railways and Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology are also seen

breakingtravelnews.in BTNIndia
The Minister of Railways, Mamata Banerjee flagged off Commonwealth Express Train, a special exhibition train to spread awareness about sports and Information Technology especially among the youth and among the masses in general. The first stop of this train will be at Amritsar on June 25th to coincide with event of arrival of Queen’s Baton of Commonwealth Games. After covering major cities in the country, this exhibition train will conclude its journey in Delhi on October 1st, 2010. It will be available for public viewing on October 1st and 2nd, 2010 at Safdarjung Railway station.
This train consists of 11 coaches out of which five coaches have been allocated to Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) to showcase the history of Commonwealth Games, details of the venues of the events to be held in the month of October, 2010 in Delhi, to spread general awareness about different sports and to give wide publicity to the sports icons of India who have brought laurels to the country with their stupendous feats. Besides, one coach is exclusively dedicated to the RSPB to showcase their history, activities as well as achievements Railway sports persons at national and international level.
On this occasion, Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi, K.H. Muniyappa, the Union Minister of State for Railways, Sachin Pilot, the Union Minister of State for Communication & Information Technology, Vivek Sahai, Chairman, Railway Board, board members and other senior official from the Ministry of Railways and Ministry Communication & Information Technology were also present.

Railways to run URS Special Trains for Ajmer Sharif

travelmail — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:29:56 +0000

breakingtravelnews.in BTNIndia

In a special gesture to facilitate movement of devotees from different parts of the country to Ajmer Sharif for participating in 798th Urs of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddun Chishti, Ministry of Railways has decided to run Urs special trains from 18 different locations.
Minister of Railways Mamata Banerjee has taken keen interest and initiative in planning of these special trains for the convenience of lakhs of devotees visiting Ajmer Sharif for the Annual Urs.
These specials will run between June 14th to 25th from Mumbai, Saharanpur, Sultanpur, Haridwar, Chennai, Delhi, Ongole, Hyderabad, Ernakulam, Chhapra, Barauni, Kamakhya, New Jalpaiguri, Jaipur, Asansol, Sealdah, Jamshedpur and Patna. There will be in all 84 trips by these special trains during this period.
These specials have been allotted suitable numbers and the ticket bookings for them could be done from any reservation centre situated across the country. Time table and broad routes of these trains are also being released by Railways through public notices being published in National and regional newspapers.
One of these special trains has been specially planned between Delhi and Ajmer for the Zayreen coming from Pakistan.

Railways to accept two more proofs on E-Tickets

travelmail — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:17:56 +0000

breakingtravelnews.in BTNIndia

The Ministry of Railways has decided to accept two more proofs of identity for traveling on e-tickets. These are; Student Identity Card with photograph issued by recognized School/College for their students and Nationalized Bank Passbook with photograph. These are in addition to the existing five proofs of identity for undertaking journey on e-tickets namely; Voter Identity Card, Passport, PAN Card, Driving License and Photo Identity Card issued by Central/State Government. The new provision will come into effect from June 15th, 2010.
There will be no concession including student concession admissible to the persons booking e-tickets except concession for senior citizens.